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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29549202">Searching for Warmth, Safety, and Food</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xeiniex/pseuds/Xeiniex'>Xeiniex</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Little Nightmares (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Complete, Concept Art, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Heavy Angst, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Long, Male-Female Friendship, Minor Violence, Running Away, Self-Doubt, Some Humor, Spoilers, Survival, Survival Horror, That warning is for minimal stuff like your typical wall of impending flesh, inspired by concept art</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:14:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>39,663</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29549202</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xeiniex/pseuds/Xeiniex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Six saves Mono and they break out of the Signal Tower, they must once again hunt for the barest necessities to get by. However, the foundations of the Pale City are crumbling. While Mono only wants to stand by his best friend's side until the end of time, Six is ready to do whatever it takes to find food.<br/>And something is following them everywhere they go.<br/>-*-*-*-*-*-<br/>[GARGANTUAN SPOILERS FOR LN2] This is a sequel fic where Six didn't drop Mono. I based this fic on a lot of the unused concept art for Little Nightmares 2. I'll include the video of the full art book in the first chapter, I highly recommend checking it out if you're an art nerd like I am. Will be updating on Thursdays!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mono &amp; Shadow Six (Little Nightmares), Mono &amp; Six (Little Nightmares), Shadow Six &amp; Six (Little Nightmares)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>262</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>594</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Betrayal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>https://youtu.be/RoKLbqmDDL4 The Art of Little Nightmares 2  &lt;- *Concept art that inspired a lot of this fic, it made me sad how much they cut out*</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The beam crumbled under Mono’s feet as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. More than anything, it was the smell of the impending wall of flesh that made him run, the awful iron smell of raw meat forgotten on the butcher’s block in summer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could still stand on the beam, but he could suddenly feel the air falling around him. It broke, and now he was about to plummet into the pit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six, far ahead of him, turned back and knelt down, reaching out her hand. He yelled out to her and jumped.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She grabbed him, firmly, as the walls of the tower crumbled around them. He felt as if he was still falling, but only for a moment before a jolt of pain shot up his spine and she held him dangling over the dark pit of breathing meat and stench. Mono stared up at her, finally able to see her entire face--it had always been hard to see under his mask.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His eyes widened. He couldn’t see her eyes under her black bangs, but he knew the expression she wore. He’d seen it before, in scraps, right after they shot the Hunter, and cremated the Doctor, and when she mauled one of the Bullies and shattered it’s tiny head on the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a look of raw, complete hatred, and it burned like a raging fire.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something shattered inside Mono. This scene had played out in his mind so many times. He saved her, they hugged the moment they got to safety, he told her about how easy the Thin Man went down, she told him how awful it was to be trapped in the tower. Or it’d be just like the time they sat in front of the fire, or they escaped on the raft, and they’d sit in reflective silence for a while, unsure of how to move forward. Both those fantasies collapsed the moment he understood her expression. His entire body, despite hanging from a cliff, felt a million pounds heavier.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The situation became painfully obvious, as the emptiness below him made a dry feeling on the soles of his feet, like a hoard of insect wings tickling up his legs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He stared at her, pleading with his eyes that whatever crime he committed that made her hate him, wouldn’t make her drop him now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His hand was slipping.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The walls were groaning in pain as they advance on them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His tiny heart hammered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six glared at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her expression narrowed, and she pulled him up onto the platform. Grasping his hand painfully, she shot through the final door of the tower, dragging his still quivering legs through the portal after her, and leaping through the static of space.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono was still unused to the feeling. Static around him felt as though he were being tickled by a taloned hawk. It didn’t make him woozy, anymore, which was little he could say for Six. The moment the television spit them out onto the soggy, gray rug of a small room, she keeled over, arms wrapped around her stomach.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono sat up on his elbows, watching the static of the TV for a brief moment before the signal was lost, and all it showed was a spectrum of stripes in magenta, yellow, white and cyan. The long beep it made irritated his ears, which was one of many terror-fueled reasons he turned it off as quickly as he stood.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He turned back to Six, who was standing, wobbly, on her bruised and dirty legs. The narrow, enraged expression remained on her face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She rubbed her stomach absently, and took a deep breath. “Why did I even bother saving you?” she asked him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As those words left her mouth, they struck Mono like an earth-shattering gong. His bones and organs rung, reverberating the statement around his body. He stood, staring back with more hurt than he meant to show.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The silence of the room grew stuffy, despite the frigid, mildew-smelling air. She was expecting an answer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…” He said, trying to hold his trembling voice at bay. “I’m sorry?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six glared at him. “You destroyed it, you absolute…” she silenced herself with a mumble, looking at the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono took a step back, feeling the now-cold screen of the TV against his shoulder blades. Why was she so angry with him? Had he hurt her accidentally? Had he done something…? He had to prompt her, because Six would never elaborate if he didn’t. “Destroyed what?” he said, carefully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six’s stomach growled, but she didn’t notice as she clenched her fists at her sides. “My music box! You destroyed my music box, and you destroyed my home, and you destroyed my toys, and you got me captured by the bullies, you got us attacked by the doctor, and you left me to die when the Thin Man came after us! All you ever do is ruin things and destroy things! I hate you!” She stomped her naked foot on the floor with a soft “plep” before turning around, grabbing a piece of paper off the floor and crumpling it up, throwing it at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono quickly shielded his face, the paper bouncing off his arm. He stared at her, pleading the hurt he felt wasn’t showing on his face, and grasped his hand to his chest. Years of practice dodging objects being thrown at him taught him to keep his hands close to his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m…” he was about to repeat “I’m sorry” but didn’t. Instead, he just stood, letting the unfinished sentence float away, gently massaging his fingers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He wanted to say everything, but his mouth remained closed. He wanted to say he cared about her, he wanted to tell her how viscously her words clawed at his heart. He went through so much trying to save her. And she hated him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He knew better than to show his feelings.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six turned from him, not saying anything.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Just barely visible up the wall was an open air vent. She grabbed on to the handles of the dresser beneath it and began recklessly climbing, stomping on the bottom handles. The broke off with a painful SNAP! and tumbled to the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Six?” Mono called, running over and starting after her, jumping up to try and grasp the handle below her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t follow me.” She told him from above.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono’s heart actually felt like it was slowing down as every beat grew heavier and heavier. He couldn’t reach, no matter how high he leapt. Instead, he pressed his tiny hands into the bottom drawer. “Six, please. I’m sorry, for all the things. I really, really am.” She couldn’t leave, not after all that, not after everything he’d done.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She hated him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She kept wordlessly climbing He knew there was nothing he could say to stop her, but still, he banged his hands on the drawer, and looked down at the floor, feeling the boiling tears begin to overflow. “You’re my only friend.” He mumbled, not even sure if she was listening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He couldn’t let himself be hurt by this. He was more used to being alone, anyway. He defeated the Thin Man alone, after all. He shouldn’t have to hide any more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yet… as he watched Six climb to the top of the dresser, all he wanted to do was curl up and hide away forever.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She hated him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He heard a thunderous growl, and his head snapped upward, expecting another monster to outrun.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Instead, he saw Six grab her stomach, and her grasp around the handle of the top drawer weakened…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then she fell.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono jumped outward, letting her plunged to the moist rug. He ran over, immediately inspecting for damages.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six swatted him away, then curled around herself, arms tight around her abdomen as she brought her knees to her chest. The growl sounded again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono stood quickly, realizing Six was starving. He started panicking and scouring the room for any kind of food.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was dark, the only light coming from a broken window high above the floor, surrounded by water stained wallpaper barely clinging to the paneling. Besides the velvet couch and dresser in the beam of light, he could see no other furniture. An ajar door stood like a glimmer of hope on the far end of the room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m going to go find you some food.” Mono assured her, knowing that she might try and leave again once he ran through the door. He shot towards it, pushing it open and jogging into the kitchenette on the other side. Quickly, he scaled the table and studied each plate, his eyes finally landing on a large piece of gray-yellow cheese. He grabbed it and jumped off the table onto the damp floor, bringing it quickly to the living room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Six was still curled up in pain on the rug, and he quickly placed it in front of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She just stared at it, huffing loudly. Then, her stomach grumbled again, and she winced in pain before reaching at the cheese and taking a massive chomp out of it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono stepped back, watching her eat like a hyena that hadn’t hunted in weeks. Crumbs of cheese flew everywhere as she tore it to shreds with her teeth, but besides those, there was nothing left when she finished.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She took a deep breath and sat back on her hands, staring at the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono sat down across from her, knees pulled to his chest. Neither of them said anything. Mono wanted to ask if she was alright, if she wanted to eat some more, if she was still mad at him. He didn’t. He knew better.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Instead, she glared at him for only a moment before turning around and laying down on the cold, damp rug. Mono reached out to her, and she shrugged him off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are we sleeping?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I am.” She replied, words spiked with frustration.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The couch is probably sof-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go away.” She said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mono blinked at her, feeling tears once again in his eyes. He stood and did as she asked, crawling up onto the couch and nestling his hands under his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What was he supposed to do? He apologized, but he wanted to fix it, whatever it was he did to make her this way. He wanted Six to be happy again, he wanted her to giggle and play on the seesaw with him, to point at cool-looking things, to race him across the room. Now, she laid there on the floor, silent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He started quivering, as one thought repeated itself through his brain over and over and over and over. It screamed, it whispered, it scolded, it jeered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She hates you.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Just like everybody else.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked away from Six, trying to mask his shaking breaths. Hide, he thought. He was very practiced in hiding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He reached into his coat pocket, and pulling out a neatly folded paper bag.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He pulled it over his head, and finally allowed only two hot tears to roll down his cheeks. One from each eye.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I developed my own headcanons prior to writing this (I've been a huge LN fan since the first game came out) sorry if they seemed jarring to anybody! If there's interest, I'll share my own theories on my Tumblr (fanon Tumblr is @robotoxytocin , main @Xeiniex ) or write a theory chapter here. Have a good one!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>It wasn’t the hallway anymore.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono gazed around the purple, hazy place. It was such a strange feeling, having a Nightmare where he wasn’t in the hallway. It’d been so long…</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It was also strange that he knew he was dreaming. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>With nothing left to do, he began to walk, the purple haze parting as he passed through it, like doors to a grand hall, welcoming him. He looked left and right, but the fog grew thicker and thicker the deeper into it he gazed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Somewhere, he heard ocean waves crashing against a cliff with the roar of a huge beast. It scared him, but he had nowhere to hide. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>The haze grew thicker and denser, like a tunnel of ghostly brick surrounding him. The monster thundered against the cliff, perfectly in time with a girl’s soft voice, calling out to him gently. A voice he recognized very quickly as he cried, “Six!” into the milky smoke around him. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He started running now, down the tunnel of purple cloud, towards the sound of her voice. Through the fog, a silhouette began swaying far ahead of him. At first, it was a dark, shadowy blob. Then, it started taking form. </em><br/>
<br/>
<em>The shadow of Six stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the purple ocean beneath her. She chanted something, barely loud enough for him to hear. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He ran to her, breaking through the violet haze onto the cliff. As he escaped the fog, his body immediately went rigid. He tried to move his legs, but they wouldn’t budge. It was futile to try and control your Nightmares. </em><br/>
<br/>
<em>The dark silhouette of Six glitched and buzzed, but did not turn to face him. Instead she repeated words over and over, whispering them out to the monstrous ocean, like a secret he wasn’t meant to hear.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono’s heart sped up as the dark shadow of Six floated away from him, hovering over the edge of the cliff. She turned to him, finally.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Six! I’m sorry!” he cried. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Her chanting ceased. She looked at the crashing waves of purple haze bellow her, and then back at him. “This is not my fate.” She said, as her body went limp.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono screamed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Like in many nightmares, there was a static flash filled with buzzing shrieks, and Mono looked up to see they had switched places. Now he hovered over the growling ocean depths, as Six stood on the cliff, clenching the cuffs of her yellow raincoat and glaring at him. “This is your fate.”  </em>
</p><p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-</p><p>He awoke with a gasp. </p><p>Mono took a few deep breaths, then glanced around the room quickly, checking and readying to run.<br/>
 <br/>
Out the window, the sky was a slightly paler gray than nighttime. The television stood as the centerpiece against the wall, a few framed photos hanging crookedly above it. He could see now another couch, opposite the one he rested on, with Six curled into a ball on top of it. Wrappers, dishes, fliers, all junk, littered the floor. He took a deep breath, reminding himself it was a dream, everything was a dream.</p><p>Mono jumped down walked over to Six, kicking the paper ball she threw at him last night across the room. The ball rolled under the couch and fell through a hole in the rotted wood, before bouncing off the counter of the room beneath them and rolling into the sink. It floated there, in the rank water, before sinking to the bottom. The ink started to run, and after a while, the paper would melt, making whatever words that were on the paper incomprehensible. </p><p>The paper no longer has any significance. Something that did have significance, however, was the movement that caught Mono’s eye. He turned to watch as something dark shot through the door of the kitchenette. </p><p>He crept over slowly, and pushed the door open a bit to see what, exactly, it was. </p><p>Whatever it was, though, was gone.</p><p>Carefully, he pulled the door almost closed again, and walked over to Six’s couch, calling, “Are you awake?”</p><p>No response. Mono stared at her for a moment, then turned. In his mind, all of last night became his dream. The emotions he felt were just his dreams playing tricks on him, and Six was actually silently thankful he saved her. All those “I hate you”s he echoed through his mind were exaggerations, <em>Nightmares</em>, obviously. </p><p>Despite his mind telling him this, Mono still wore his mask, and it didn’t occurred to him once to take it off again.</p><p>He went back to the kitchen. There was a window in here too, on the far side of the door. Outside, across the road, he could see another TV set with the colorful standby screen pointed out the window of a dark room. </p><p>Mono climbed up onto the counter and walked over to the spout, turning the knob on the side. The sink cupboard rumbled angrily at him, and then cool water began dripping from the faucet. </p><p>He stuck his hands under the freezing water, scrubbing away all the grime that accumulated over the last few days, dirt trailing off his pale fingers and dripping into the sink with each drop. After they were clean, he cupped his hands under it and caught one of the ice-cold droplets in his palms. He bent his head down awkwardly, chin and mouth coming out from under his mask, and drank out of his hands. </p><p>On the other side of the sink, there was a stack of dishes that towered precariously to the ceiling. Mono stuck his freezing hands in his pockets and craned his neck to try and see the top.</p><p> Out of pure boredom and tiredness, he grabbed onto one of the bottom plates and began scaling the stack, clambering up them like a ladder. </p><p>He heard the door to the kitchen creek, and his head whipped to it. </p><p>Six walked into the room, glancing at him once, and then climbing onto one of the dining chairs. She grabbed the edge of the table and heaved her self up, surveying the four plates of food before her. </p><p>Mono relaxed and hung off the stack of plates. “Sleep okay?” He asked, craning his head around to try and see her. </p><p>“None of your business.” Six told him, grabbing a piece of stale bread off a plate and biting into it with a crunch. To Six, that signified the end of the conversation. To Mono, that meant change the subject.</p><p>“There’s food here. And it’s warm-ish. We can stay for a while.” He told her. It couldn’t be home, but it seemed safer than all the other places they found. No bullies or traps, no hunters with their guns stomping around, no photophobic mannequins grabbing from the darkness. By all standards, this tiny apartment with a kitchen of rotting food and an unhealthy amount of black mold growing on the ceiling was the best home they had yet.</p><p>Six replied with silence, ripping the bread apart with her teeth.</p><p>Mono let go of the plates with one hand and dangled from the other, turning to her. “There’s no toys or anything that I’ve found, but we haven’t opened the dresser yet! And there’s probably a pen in one of these kitchen drawers, maybe we could have a drawing conte-”</p><p>“Shut up.” Six demanded. </p><p>The gong in Mono’s chest was struck again, rattling his entire body. He stared at her, and she ate the last crumb of the bread before hopping down and walking back to the living room, completely silent.</p><p> All those echoes were real. That hatred wasn’t part of the dream.</p><p>He grabbed onto the plates with both hands again, bowing his head and staring at the ground beneath him in thought. There had to be some specific reason why she hated him, it couldn’t just be that “he destroyed everything”. There must have been something, one specific act he committed, that made her act like this.</p><p>A thought clicked in his mind. Was it the music Box, he wondered? Was she actually fully aware of her actions when she was warped and monstrous, and him destroying the music box actually hurt her? It was the thing making her that way, she should be thankful he destroyed it, shouldn’t she?</p><p>But she wasn’t.</p><p>He inhaled, staring back up the stack of plates. If it was the fact he destroyed her music box that made her so angry, he would just find her a new one. One that wasn’t evil. They couldn’t be that uncommon, she had one with her in the Hunter’s basement after all, there had to be another one somewhere in the city. </p><p>With a glimmer of newfound determination, Mono began scaling the plates once again. Maybe there was a shop nearby, or he could find that toy store he was at earlier! A toy store would definitely have a music box, or two, or ten! Six would never have to lose it again!</p><p>He grinned under his mask as grabbed onto the top plate. She’d smile and they’d play the music in their living room and sing along together, just like best friends should. Good things would finally start happening!</p><p>He pulled his chin up to the top of the stack, and immediately froze. His blood became ice, colder than the frigid water he drank just a moment ago. Under his mask, his eyes widened in sudden horror.</p><p> There, sitting on top of the plates, the dark, glitching shadow of Six cocked her head to the side, staring at him. </p><p>She raised her hand, waving at him, as the room began to shake.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Just a quick, short update for today because so many people were excited in chapter 1! I also didn't want to make everyone wait a full week for such a short chapter, so I hope you all enjoy this for now and can't wait for Thursday's chapter 3. Feel free to follow @robotoxytocin on tumblr for updates. Later y'all's!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Towers Falling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The stack of plates wobbled violently, before the tower fell forward. </p>
<p>Mono let go quickly and jumped onto the table right as hundreds of pieces of China exploded through the entire room. He turned his back to it, quickly covering his eye holes and crouching down, putting his hand on the table for balance as the floor bounced violently.</p>
<p>He didn’t need to open his eyes to hear the rattling of the silverware on the table, or the dangerous groaning of the walls around him. He heard a loud bang in the other room, probably the TV falling over, and opened his eyes to see Six dash through the door. </p>
<p>Was he doing this? He didn’t feel like he was. He wasn’t tuning anything on purpose, and if anything the signal felt… weaker than ever right now. He reached forward, trying to hold something, to straighten something and stop the shaking. There was almost no signal to grab on to. </p>
<p>Instead, he stood on the wobbly table and ran after Six, carefully stepping over the shattered ceramic. Six grabbed the bottom of the window sill and began trying to heave it up. Mono quickly joined, and they pushed the window upwards together.</p>
<p>He glanced left and right, searching for a ledge to jump to, when Six grabbed one of the hangers dangling from the loose clothesline overhead, and zipped along it without looking back. </p>
<p>He grabbed the other hangers with both hands and kicked off the sill, shooting after her.</p>
<p>He squeezed his arms to the side of his head, the sudden rush of air threatening to blow his mask right off his face. glancing down, he expected to see concrete cracking, ready to create another cavernous gap in the City’s foundation.</p>
<p>Instead, all he saw were viewers. Thousands of them milling beneath him, growling and screaming and reaching up their cold, melted hands. </p>
<p>He curled his legs up under him, out of their reach. All the TVs in the city were playing the colorfully striped screen and the annoying high-pitched beep, he realized. The shows had turned off, and there was nothing for the viewers to do now, except what all monsters do when they get bored. Hunt. </p>
<p>He stared over the crowd, trying to see how far the mob stretched down the road, when he saw something that made his hands dangerously clammy as the blood turned cold within them. </p>
<p>Well, he didn’t see it, actually. Because it was gone.</p>
<p>The signal tower had completely vanished from the skyline. Where it once stood like an eye watching over the entire city, warping and brainwashing, was nothing but miserable gray clouds. It was no wonder the world felt weaker, he thought. It was like he was a little kid again (well, little-er), barely able to tune a signal when he did find one, and too scared of his freakish power to practice it.</p>
<p>The air around him began slowing, and he looked back up. The line was sagging in a low U, and growing narrower with the second. Quickly, he swung off the hanger and through a open window of the next building. He fell for a moment, but quickly got to his feet, tromping after Six.</p>
<p>The shaking grew brutal as beams from the ceiling snapped and fell around them. If Mono had taken a moment to glance out the window behind him, he would’ve watched as their short-lived home was now precariously diagonal over the road, the top now leaning into the tower they ran through now, pushing it forward. </p>
<p>Six climbed up a stack of books and jumped to an air vent high off the floor. Mono climbed after her, but as the tower tilted, the books toppled over to the side. He jumped, expecting Six’s hand. </p>
<p>Instead, he grasped the edge of the vent and pulled himself up. He half-slid, half-crawled as quickly as he could through the musty corridor. The scream of a  tin can being slowly crushed echoed around him, and the claustrophobic passage compressed narrower and narrower as more pieces of the building weighed into it.</p>
<p>He started pulling himself along on his belly, barely able to fit through as he clawed his way to the end of the vent. He tumbled out right before the vent crushed itself completely. He ran after Six, who stood at the edge of the windowsill, calling over to him. </p>
<p>“Mono!” she cried, pushing her back into the glass of the window and pointing at a wrench sitting on the table in front of her. </p>
<p>Mono scrambled onto the desk, grabbing the handle of the wrench and dragging it over, hefting it up and grunting as he smashed through the glass. Six jumped down to the fire escape, and he dropped the tool, quickly hopping down after her. </p>
<p>The tower leaned so much that Mono was forced to press his body into the bottom of the handrail as he clambered down the cold, wire steps. The bolts holding it to the wall of the building started popping off, shooting across the road like bullets. Finally, he leaped down onto the wet concrete road, Six running up the street far ahead of him. Mono ran after her, perpendicular to the collapsing building, not even bothering to turn and watch as the tower leaned rigidly forward. It crashed into the one across from it, dropping a cascade of dust and rubble. </p>
<p>And that tower fell diagonally into the next one.</p>
<p>And that one into the next.</p>
<p>A domino effect of splintered, groaning skyscrapers fell one after the other. A wet cloud of dust wafted upwards into the sky. Each tower crushed hundreds of dazed viewers, trapped stumbling through the streets on the hunt for reckless, scampering rodents. </p>
<p>Mono ran from this mess down a dead-end road, slipping through the mud as the cries of crumbling cement and twisting metal created terrifying images in his mind, convincing him of what would happen if he stopped running. </p>
<p>Finally, Six stopped at the edge of a canyon torn across the street. She turned, staring at Mono as he limped up to her. They both watched the city before them, the tall buildings that seemed to go on to infinity in all directions, as the crashes slowly grew farther and farther away. Patiently, they waited what could have been a half hour, the sounds of tumbling towers growing so faint they weren’t even recognizable anymore. </p>
<p>Six turned and began walking away from Mono. He looked over at her, and started to follow, before she turned and glared at him. “Where are you going?” she demanded to know.</p>
<p>“With you.” Mono said almost immediately. A hundred anxious little thoughts were running through his brain, the king of them all being She thinks this is your fault. “I didn’t do that.” He assured her quickly. </p>
<p>She glared at him. He couldn’t tell if she believed him or not. “I’m going back to the Wilderness.” She stated.</p>
<p>“…Why?” He asked, following after her, pushing away the thought. “Why return to a place we know is not safe?”</p>
<p>Six growled, walking down an alleyway. “It’s safer there than this place! The Signal Tower is gone. Without it’s force, the city will collapse.” </p>
<p>So she didn’t think it was him. He took a long gulp of air, and let it out with a sigh of relief.  <br/> <br/>“It will stand for a while.” He argued. Right as he said that, the ground below them began growling again. He quickly squatted down, catching his balance with one arm. The shaking was violent enough that a dumpster rolled down the alley and got stuck in an open manhole. The cement around it cracked in a jagged spider web. </p>
<p>The shaking stopped, but the damage to the structure was done, and someday soon both the dumpster and manhole would be trapped under an avalanche of debris. </p>
<p>Mono, contrary to his personal belief, was not stupid. He understood just as well as Six that this place would inevitably fall apart. Over the years, the city will be inhabited by some new malicious entity that will take it over, rebuild it, and all the monsters within the buildings will be warped and changed once again, and a new Nightmare will begin. However, until that day, the Pale City will sink into the sea or collapse over itself, every single building eventually falling into unfixable ruin. </p>
<p>Six tried to climb the chain link fence separating the alley from the street across. She hopped up, trying to get a decent grip, but kept falling again and again.  </p>
<p>Mono continued to stand, watching her back. She turned to the dumpster, and began trying to pull it out of the manhole, grunting with the effort.  </p>
<p>“You can boost me over.” Mono said softly with a small shrug.  </p>
<p>Six’s expression narrowed. “I thought you were staying, since it will ‘stand for a while’.” She swept her bangs out of her eyes as she stared at him fiercely.</p>
<p>“I never…” said I was staying, he was about to say. He changed his mind halfway through saying it. </p>
<p>Six stared at him, as though she expected him to finish. It made him squirm under her gaze a bit, which wasn’t normal. Normally, Six’s eyes were skittish, always on the lookout. They weren’t bright, but they weren’t dull—they were like full moons, wide, watery, trapped in endless thought. As though she was always watching something just out of view. </p>
<p>“The hunter…” He argued as loudly as he could get his voice to go, but still no louder than the rustle of leaves. </p>
<p>“Is dead.” She said, very plainly.</p>
<p>“You don’t know that.” Mono said, his voice growing louder again. </p>
<p>She didn’t say anything back. Instead, she tried to climb up on top of the dumpster, hopping up and reaching for the fence, but not quite able to get it.  </p>
<p>He shuddered. He wanted her eyes to go back to the way they were, open and curious. He hated being stared at like that.</p>
<p>When he first saw her up close, between the cracks in the door of the Hunter’s Cabin, he couldn’t see her eyes, but her mouth, and her slow winding of the toy… She was peaceful. He wanted to give that back to her, return that feeling, allow her to feel calm again. There had to be another Music Box somewhere in the Pale City, and he had to find it before they left forever. </p>
<p>He walked over to the dumpster. “The manhole cover there is blocking a hole on the other side of the fence. Boost me over, and I’ll move it for you.” </p>
<p>Six stopped jumping, and glared at him. Then, she huffed, walking over to the fence and cupping her hands down. “Over here,” She called. </p>
<p>Mono nodded once, stepping onto Six’s hands. She threw him upwards and he grabbed the top of the fence. It scratched at his arms as he climbed over and fell to the ground with a thunk. </p>
<p>Carefully standing up again, he walked over and pressed his shoulder into the manhole cover, pushing it to the side. It rolled around and around on the ground before finally falling to a stop, like a spinning top. </p>
<p>Six ducked through the hole and started across the street.  </p>
<p>Mono walked behind her a ways. They were going to have to go through the hospital again to get back. There was no way to cross the caverns on the left and right.</p>
<p>He glanced over at the canyons, and felt a shiver of a Signal wash over him. He clenched his fists, forcing himself to not tune it.  </p>
<p>All you do is ruin things and destroy things! Six’s voice echoed in his mind. The gong rang again, but this time fainter and farther away, as though it were on a mountain surrounded by dense fog. Trying to pull the city together would only destroy it faster, he decided. Besides, it was barely a ghost frequency. See, already gone! He couldn’t feel it anymore, nope, not one bit, no sir. </p>
<p>The Thin Man’s cold smile flashed through his mind. He shuddered and quickly shook his head. Dead, dead, dead, he made sure of that, dead dead dead dead! </p>
<p>He sighed and turned back to the hospital, when someone caught his eye. </p>
<p>He twisted, sharply, and stared up the road. A choked, surprised noise barely escaped his lips.  </p>
<p> A dozen viewers survived the collapsed building, staring with empty rage at Mono and stumbling after him, reaching out their melted hands. Some crawled on all fours, like hungry animals. Some, who had limbs half gone from their bodies, hopped and walked like acrobats. Others yet groaned a melodious mess of terror and anger. </p>
<p>But something shocked Mono more than all the warped monsters stumbling their way down the road. In front of it all and standing on a wood crate like a stage, Six’s Shadow was swaying gently, staring over the crowd like the ringmaster of a grand circus. </p>
<p>Mono ran. He shot across the road after Real Six, who started running too. There was a door to the hospital, blocked by an overturned trashcan. Both of them began pulling it out of the way, and scrambled into the building as the Viewers gained quickly behind them.</p>
<p>The moment they stumbled into the sickly fluorescent light of the hospital, Six spun around, pressing her back into the door as it cracked under the force of viewers beating into it. </p>
<p>Mono thought fast. On both sides of the door were tall, metal filing cabinets. He grabbed the bottom handle of the first drawer and began climbing up it like a ladder. </p>
<p>“What are you doing?!” Six screamed at him, but Mono could only reply with “Look out!” as he leaned backwards, pulling the filing cabinet with him.</p>
<p>It creaked, rocked back, and he tugged violently at the handle of the locked drawer. The heavy cabinet toppled forward. Six yelped, and Mono jumped from it, running away from the fray as the cabinet barricaded the door with a crash. </p>
<p>Mono immediately stood from his safety spot and shot over, eyes darting back and forth over the fallen cabinet as the banging on the other side of the door persisted. “Six? Where are you?” he called shakily, when he felt a sharp blow in the back of his head. </p>
<p>He yelled, reaching his hand to his scalp under the paper bag, running his fingers through his hair as he twisted around to face Six. She had her fist clenched at her side, and her eyes scalded him. </p>
<p>He stared back, confused. “What was that for?” he asked, tears of pain already welling up in his eyes. </p>
<p>“That was for almost crushing me, and this-” she jabbed him, sharply, in the shoulder. “Is for almost getting us caught by the Viewers!” </p>
<p>Mono shook his head, rubbing his shoulder. “I… I was trying to block the door.” He said sheepishly. This was no different from the gun in the Hunter’s shed, or the hand in the morgue. He had given her a good eight seconds of warning even, that was more than when he dropped her from the Bully’s trap.</p>
<p>“Trying to block the door from the crowd you attracted!” Six screamed. As if on a cue, the door jolted forward, and both of them jumped in fright, backing away some more. </p>
<p>Mono stared at her, dumbstruck. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, even though he wasn’t sure what he should be sorry for. He wanted to warn her about her shadow, how it was following them. That it was in the street right before the mob, and their room right before the shake. </p>
<p>What was it? When he saw her in the train station, it almost seemed helpful, leading him up into the street, inspiring him to fight the Thin Man. Now… it was like she was a bad omen. He wanted to tell Six these things, to warn her that a shadow version of her was following them. All that came out was the weak words, “Your shhhhadow…” more like a hiss of wind than a sentence. </p>
<p>She ignored him, and scanned the room in front of them.</p>
<p>It was a surgical theater, and each seat was occupied by a Patient, welded together with metal prosthetics and tape. There were two doorways, the one they came through and one down the hall across from them, at the other end of the theater. Six shot towards it, not even giving Mono warning. </p>
<p>Mono reached forward, like reaching would help his mouth make words. Nothing came from his voice box but cracked letters as he froze in surprise. Six pushed through the adjacent door and ran into the next room, leaving it barely open behind her, not even noticing Mono staring at something else. </p>
<p>His gaze turned upwards. Sitting on a shelf above the door, Shadow Six kicked her dangling legs absently, head swaying back and forth to a song Mono couldn’t hear.</p>
<p>He blinked at her, finally taking his hand off the back of his head. “What are you?” he managed to say.</p>
<p>The ground began shaking again, and all of the Patient’s prosthetic limbs rattled and clinked. Shadow Six stopped swinging her legs, and pointed up at the fluorescent lights dangling precariously overhead. Mono followed her finger. They immediately blinked out, and his vision was overcome with shades of dark blue before resting on the pitch blackness before him. The shaking was still going on, but the rattling had stopped. There was only silence in the room.  </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Please leave a comment. Theories,  headcanons, screaming, I love em' all! Kudos are awesome too. <br/>Also, whatever you do, don't look up the song, "La Ballad of Lady and Bird" on YouTube, and definitely DO NOT think about Six and Mono while listening to it. Ta ta! 👋</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Hospital</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Six held still, listening for any clinking of Patient’s limbs waddling towards her. The hall she was in thankfully wasn’t completely dark, a sickly yellow glow coming from an open door not far away. The light illuminated row after row after row of prosthetic limbs dangling from the ceiling, hands and legs and other body parts hooked by chains, like prisoners, to the bars running up and down the hall. </p>
<p>When she realized she couldn’t hear any movement, she relaxed a little, sniffling quietly. She was starting to feel hungry again, her stomach grumbling angry obscenities at her. Just like last time, she wasn’t sure exactly what she was hungry for. </p>
<p>She wrapped her arm around her belly, sniffing the air again. There was food nearby, hopefully that would satiate it. </p>
<p>The feeling was so weird, because Six had spent her entire life hungry, every day spent searching for scraps and crumbs. But this… was something different. She wanted to worry about it, but she couldn’t feel worried. The hunger definitely wasn’t a soothing feeling by any means, It was just… void. It didn’t really make her feel anything.</p>
<p>No, that was a lie. It made her feel something.</p>
<p>It almost made her… It felt like… like she was <em>forgetting</em> something, something important.   </p>
<p>What was she thinking? She shook her head. None of this mattered, she was hungry, thus, she needed to find food. </p>
<p>She made her way to the yellow light, her thoughts suddenly flying back to Mono, still in the surgical theater behind her, surrounded by the Patients on all sides. He could help himself, she decided. He had been on his own for so long, he could figure it out.  </p>
<p>There was a tiny voice in the back of her head, though. It had it’s hands cupped over it’s mouth and shouted at the top of its itty-bitty lungs, go close the door on him! Shut it, lock it, keep him inside! His powers won’t kill you if he’s dead! He’s dangerous, he’s a monster, he’ll kill you first chance he gets, get him first before he gets you!</p>
<p>At the moment, the voice screaming at her to eat something was much louder. Her stomach rolled as she walked into the room with the yellow glow.  </p>
<p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-</p>
<p>Mono froze. The rumbling came to a slow stop, and the silence fell over the entire theater like a blanket, suffocating any small, glowing ember of life under it. He needed to get out, now. </p>
<p>He pressed his tiny hand into the cool wall, listening for any sound as he ran towards the exit as fast as he dared. </p>
<p>Something scrapped along the floor behind him. He ducked, and metal scratched along the wall over his head, clinking together like rusty, unhealthy fingers would. </p>
<p>He sprinted, the thing behind him squeaking like a rat, or the wheels of a shopping trolley. His heart pounded as he reached forward. The door couldn’t have been much farther… </p>
<p>He felt the wood of the door on his fingertips. Then, a tight, cold grip wrapped around his waist and yanked him away. </p>
<p>He gasped in pain as the air was squeezed from his lungs, and he began kicking and punching the metal hand. It only clenched harder, crushing his chest in it’s grip. </p>
<p>He tried to breathe, blood pumping pressure into his brain, but his chest couldn’t expand. He ceased clawing at the hand, and reached out for the door, hoping to push it open and flood light into the room. </p>
<p>He jerked forward quickly, trying to loosen the grip of the Patient as he reached. There was the high-pitched squeak of trolley wheels as the mannequin that held him rolled forward, Mono’s palm grazing the metal door frame.  </p>
<p>He opened his mouth wide, trying to gasp for air, as his head grew hot and he felt strain travel up his spine. In a last-ditch effort, he grabbed at the metal frame with both hands, and pushed backwards as hard as he could. He hoped with every small ounce of his being the patient would fall off it’s scooter and let him go.</p>
<p>What he didn’t expect was them to roll backwards for a moment, and then loud crashes as he and the patient both tumbled down the wood staircase that led into the theater. </p>
<p>A few times he felt a bruising bang as he hit something or something hit him on the way down. He clenched his teeth, remembering a bit of advice he learned about falling down stairs, to always close your jaw as tight as you could and keep all your teeth in your mouth. Something smashed into his side, and he inhaled sharply through his nose. </p>
<p>When he finally collided the hard linoleum floor of the theater, he covered his head and waited for the loud crashes of plastic limbs and metal carts to a stop falling around him. When mock silence filled the room once again, he carefully, painfully, pushed himself up. </p>
<p>Still huffing, he gently rubbed his hip. He couldn’t feel anything warm or wet, thankfully, but he was sure the skin was already bruising under his favorite coat. </p>
<p>The emergency of the situation dawned on him, and he stared up into the darkness. The stairs were all the way at the top of the theater now.</p>
<p>He started forward, reaching his hands in front of him to see, and felt the splintered wood of the first stair. Carefully, he pulled himself on top of it, a sharp pain shooting through his hip that he tried to ignore. </p>
<p>He quickly felt for the next stair, and reached up, gripping the edge. The steps were steep, made for longer legs. </p>
<p>He swung his leg up and pushed himself onto the stair, pausing to rub his hip again. It didn’t feel broken, just achy. He checked  his chest, feeling for strange bumps where bones might be sticking out wrong. Feeling nothing but his malnourished rib cage under his coat, he hefted himself up onto the next step, grunting in pain. </p>
<p>He heard a sudden rattling noise, and he picked up speed, searching for the edge of the next step as fast as he could. It was impossible for him to reach the top of the staircase at this rate. He climbed the next step swiftly, but the rattling continued, growing louder in the darkness. </p>
<p>He glanced around, not sure what direction it was coming from, or maybe it was coming from everywhere. It was on the above steps, and then the steps below, and then all through the room, like a mean dog at the end of it’s chain running around behind a tall fence. </p>
<p>Mono pressed himself against the wall. Rattling, pounding footsteps, things scratching and scraping at the floor. He felt his chest rise and fall with each rapid knock of his heart, blood shooting through his hip and around his body as fast as it could go. Despite the rapid thumping, he started feeling numb. There was no feeling in his body beside the heat in his side and the bloody bass in his ears. The rattling was growing too loud for him to even think. He shrank down, trying to make himself as small as possible, trying to hide on the open step</p>
<p>He knew how to stop it, he realized. Barely out of his range, there was a quiet, buzzing signal. Not thinking, he reached out to it, grabbing it firmly as it tried to squirm between his fingers.</p>
<p>Without a second thought, he tuned it.</p>
<p>The lights came on with a flash. They popped, like the crackle of lightning, before fading back to the green diseased color from before the shake. </p>
<p>Mono had his back pressed to the wall. Rusted metal hooks, plastic claws and gloves encircled him on all other sides. Some were barely a few inches away from him, and had frozen the moment the lights blinked on. </p>
<p>He huffed in terror, staring at each mannequin hand reaching out to him, reduced to statues in the light. His mind was still staticky and buzzing with the small signal. He grabbed one of the rusted hooks and pushed it backwards, and the entire mannequin went stiffly tumbling down the stairs, prosthetic limbs snapping and breaking off as it fell and crash-landed on the hard floor, its parts mingling with the parts of the scooter mannequin. He couldn’t tell which were from which. </p>
<p>He walked through the newly made gap in the crowd of Patients. There were actually two sets of stairs in the theater, the other flight by the door he and Six entered. He made his way back down the few steps he manged up, and walked across the theater to the other stair. </p>
<p>As he started climbing up them again, the numbness began fading from his body as he realized what he had done. Using his powers would only destroy the city faster, what was he thinking? He could’ve crushed Six and himself in the hospital by doing that, at least by getting caught by the mannequins, she would have a chance!</p>
<p>He pulled himself up onto the next step, puffing tiredly. He was so selfish, so stupid! Why did he do that, why did he do that? His mind raced with angry thoughts as he climbed up each stairstep, ignoring his side.</p>
<p>Six was already mad at him! The thoughts yelled. For crying out loud, was he trying to hurt her? They scolded. Was he trying to be like the Thin Man?! They accused.</p>
<p>He stopped his climbing, instead staring at the landing with the two doors. He couldn’t do that, never again. He hid his powers for his whole life. Now he just used them for every little thing, huh?</p>
<p>No. This is one time. One time he got angry, one time he loses control. Never again. The lights, he promised himself, would be a one-time thing. Never again would he use his freakish, monstrous power. </p>
<p>He reached the top stair, upon which the anxieties crept up on him again. Destiny, fate! they whispered. Six hated him, they told him. He pulled the paper bag lower over his head, as though that would stop their endless torment.  </p>
<p>He walked down the landing to the slightly-open door. The hallway on the other side was dark, the only light was a soft yellow triangle coming from a doorway. He walked towards it, and the smell of food began growing stronger. There were a few children’s toys scattered around the hall here and there, blocks and a toy duck. He didn’t see any music boxes though, and wasn’t feeling brave enough to search the darkness of the hallway looking for one.  </p>
<p>The stench of food that brought him closer to the room wasn’t an appetizing smell. It smelled like a fast-food restaurant that hadn’t been cleaned in years, and all the patrons were allowed to smoke and let their pets run around. To Mono, it smelled like the most delicious feast ever made. </p>
<p>The hospital cafeteria was abandoned, but trays of food sat at spots on tables, and a single colorful TV screen sang it’s irritating beep from the far edge of the buffet. Said buffet was unattended, but there were several vats of food sitting out to the open. Mono glanced around, searching the floors beneath tables for more forgotten toys, but found none.</p>
<p>Mono climbed up the stack of trays besides it, and walked along the bar. Baked beans that didn’t smell good, jello with chunks in it, and a pot of gray meat stew were presented to him, hot and delicious. He laid on his belly, reaching his dirty hands into the meat stew and cupping them like a bowl before bringing them to his mouth. </p>
<p>It was lukewarm and shoe-flavored, with bits of gristle getting stuck between his teeth. He slurped down two more handfuls when he heard a crash behind him. He flipped around and stood, wiping his gravy-covered hands on his coat as his eyes darted around the room.</p>
<p>He didn’t see anything except the metal trays of food and unoccupied seats. “Hey?” he called, hoping Six would reply. </p>
<p>No answer. He carefully jumped down from the bar and walked across the room, calling, “Hi!” Still, no response. </p>
<p>“Six!” he yelled again. This time, a sound responded, but it wasn’t Six. He spun on his heels right as the door behind the bar swung open, and out hobbled a fat, wrinkled Lunch Lady with a squashed wart-covered mask concealing her face.</p>
<p>Mono quickly slid behind a dirty mop bucket, and crouched down out of the Lunch Lady’s view. He heard a loud splash in the bucket, and the lunch lady grumbled something as Mono heard the clink of dishes and the sloshing of food. </p>
<p>Or maybe it was sloshing in the bucket? Curious, he grabbed the edge and pulled himself up, peering into the container.</p>
<p>Six stood in the middle of the bucket, arms held up over the rancid smelling liquid. Mono felt a very tiny wave a relief roll across his shoulders.</p>
<p>“Psst!” he called, her head turning to him. Brown liquid dripped off her hood between them. “You okay?” he asked. </p>
<p>“Shh!” She told him, pressing her finger to her mouth. Mono bit the inside of his lip, forcing himself not to apologize as she ducked down, staring out of the bucket at the Lunch Lady. </p>
<p>Mono’s arms were getting tired, so he dropped down and glanced around the side of the bucket at her. She hobbled across the little area behind the buffet, stirring the pot of stew and then, using the same spoon without wiping it off, began scooping the jello into little bowls and putting them out in front of her. </p>
<p>Mono stared over at the door he came in through. It was a straight run, they’d be spotted in an instant. Better to keep hiding then go for it, he decided, and ducked back behind the bright yellow bucket once again. </p>
<p>He listened to the Lunch Lady’s hacking cough, and then more sloshing as she stirred the pots again. He sat down, quietly playing with the thread on the hem of his coat, his heart slowly pounding adrenaline through his body, readying to run at any moment. </p>
<p>After what felt like an hour, he heard her grumble again, and the doors to the kitchen slam open and closed. Quickly, he grabbed the edge of the bucket and pulled himself up. Six had her back to him, and was wading through the revolting liquid to the edge of the dining table they were nearest to. </p>
<p>“Six?” he said gently. She didn’t look at him, instead grabbing the edge of the table and pulling herself up with a grunt. </p>
<p>He dropped off the bucket and walked over to a chair, carefully climbing up (his hip still hurt) and pulling himself onto the table. Six sat, picking pieces of meat out of one of the bowls with her hands and chewing them loudly, and ignored him. Her silence filled Mono with a quiet sadness as he remembered how their last conversation went.</p>
<p>He rubbed his still-greasy hands on his coat before folding them together, and exhaling. “I’m sorry.” he told her. </p>
<p>“For what?” she said absently, grabbing another piece of meat. </p>
<p>Mono was quiet. Was she… not angry at him anymore? He shook his head. Even if she stopped being angry, it was his fault after all, and he needed to make amends as best he could. “For getting the viewers to chase us, and almost crushing you with the filing cabinet. And getting you kidnapped. Twice.” </p>
<p>Six didn’t turn to look at him, and instead scoffed.</p>
<p>Mono slumped a little, saying, “Can I make it up to you?”</p>
<p>She didn’t say anything. </p>
<p>Mono stared at her back, silently, patiently. He knew he’d never get a reply. The gong was little more than a thud now, muffled and muted under layers of worn emotions. All he wanted was a smile.</p>
<p>He looked down, deciding to change the subject, focus on the task at hand. “We should go. It… The Lunch Lady could be back soon.” He said, quietly. </p>
<p>Six ignored him, moving over to the other plate and carefully inspecting the contents upon it. </p>
<p>Mono shifted on his feet, and rubbed his still-aching shoulder. “There’s probably a way out back through the hallway.” He mumbled. </p>
<p>Six knelt down beside a plate and tore a piece of bread off of a stale sandwich. </p>
<p>Mono continued. “The lights might go off again any second, we should probably get out as soon as-”</p>
<p>“If you’re so scared, then just leave already.” She said, crunching on the crusty bread. </p>
<p>Mono paused, then shook his head. “I want to make sure you’re safe too.” </p>
<p>“I’m still hungry.” Six told him. She quickly stood and ran, leaping to the table across from them. Mono stared after her for a second, then followed, jumping across the room. He thumped on the hard wood table, immediately grabbing his hip and feeling hot tears prick his eyes as a sharp pain screamed at him not to do that again. </p>
<p>He ignored it. </p>
<p>“We’ll find more food later. It’s unsafe here.” He called. Six hopped nimbly across the tables, then onto the metal buffet, her feet tink-tink-tinking across the aluminum as she made her way to the steaming vats of food. </p>
<p>Mono clenched his teeth and jumped onto the next table, following in her footsteps. He landed more softly, on his toes this time, and it eased the pain a little bit. “There are other kitchens we can steal from, not here.” </p>
<p>“I said,” Six stated, kneeling to the vat of jello. “I’m still hungry.” </p>
<p>Mono jumped to the next table, his hip now searing with pain. He tensed his jaw. “The lights could blink off again soon. We need to go!” Anger was starting to creep into his tone. He heard it before he could catch it. He finally jumped onto the buffet, his hip pinching awfully. He gripped his side and limped over to where she sat in front of the food. </p>
<p>Six continued scooping green jello from the vat with her bare hands and eating it, sticky melted goo dribbling down the front of her still-damp raincoat. </p>
<p>“We have to leave!” he protested, standing right beside her. Finally, FINALLY, Six turned and stared up at him. Her eyes still held that narrow, uncomfortable gaze that still made Mono shrink away from them. </p>
<p>“You leave, I’m staying here until I’m not hungry any more.” She growled at him. </p>
<p>Mono stared back at her. He felt an unfairness root in his heart as she said that. The roots began sprouting, growing thorny branches of anger through his bloodstream. “You’re being… dumb.” He almost mumbled, but not quite. </p>
<p>Six’s gaze finally changed. It widened in surprise, but then she quickly stood, her bangs falling over her eyes once again, covering them from view. “You’re being dumb! Why can’t you just leave me alone, before you get me killed, huh?!” she yelled.</p>
<p>Mono would’ve usually stopped right there. He didn’t like to argue. Yet, his voice continued to mumble, barely above his breath, and barely within his control. “We should leave, then. This is a bad place, there are safer places elsewhere, better places to get food and rest.”</p>
<p>“No!” Six cried. “I’m not leaving!”</p>
<p>“That’s…” Mono clenched his fists at his side. “You’re being unfair!” he was trying to help her, couldn’t she see that? She was the one putting <em>herself</em> in danger, she was going to get <em>herself</em> killed, he had nothing to do with it! </p>
<p>“Just go away, alright?!” she screamed. </p>
<p>“NO!” Mono shouted as loudly as he could, and the building around them groaned in agreement. </p>
<p>Both kids froze, staring up at the creaking walls of the room. It was sudden, and the entire building swiftly settled down back into silence. Mono quickly unclenched his fist.</p>
<p>“I didn’t mean to do that.” He accidentally muttered aloud as he released the weak signal he was throttling in his mind.</p>
<p> Six glared at him. “It doesn’t matter if you meant to or not.” She said. </p>
<p>The butcher’s knife came down right between them, slicing a thin hole through the aluminum buffet. Mono jumped backwards as the Lunch Lady grabbed at Six, grasping her tightly around the waist and screeching angrily. </p>
<p>Six kicked at her and scratched her rubbery hand as Mono backed away more. The Lunch Lady put the butcher’s knife down on the buffet and, using her free hand to take a lid off one of the back buffet vats, revealed a pot of streaky-white soup roiling and rumbling with scalding heat. Heat that would cook Six alive.   </p>
<p>Mono stood fast, the Lunch Lady dangling Six over the boiling dish. He panicked as he ran over, ignoring his side, and lifted the heavy butcher’s knife off the buffet. A vile drink of backlogged rage polluted with terror swirled through Mono’s gut, and he swung the knife over his head as hard as he could. </p>
<p>The Lunch Lady howled like an animal and dropped Six to the floor. She grabbed at the knife that sunk into the back of her hand, ghastly screams filling the room. Mono dropped to the floor, grabbing Six’s hand before she could argue, and running both of them out of the cafeteria as fast as he could. </p>
<p>The Lunch Lady’s piercing shrieks began following them as they rounded the tables and shot through the door into the hallway. Six finally began picking up speed, dropping Mono’s hand and starting to run ahead of him, the clacking heels of the Lunch Lady not far behind them. </p>
<p>Mono didn’t notice at first, as the ground started to bounce. There was a groaning rumble, and Mono realized what was going on, quickly shaking his head. Not now, not now, he thought, seeing the yellow of Six’s raincoat not far ahead of him as she stumbled to the floor, landing on her hands. </p>
<p>Mono fell on his front, the shaking of the floor throwing his own legs out from under him. Quickly, he flipped around, eyes wide as he watched the Lunch Lady sway back and forth, her shoulders grazing the fingers of the rows of limbs hanging overhead, but still plodding towards him. </p>
<p>She reached for him, dark ooze dripping off the back of her injured hand. </p>
<p>The lights went out, but the shaking persisted. Crashes of falling cabinets and tables filled the hall, but they weren’t quite as loud as the piercing, mortifying shriek.</p>
<p>The scream was abruptly cut, and the rumbling began to die down to silence again. Mono still laid, staring up at the blackness where the Lunch Lady was, still terrified that any moment he would feel her sausagy fingers wrapping around his head.</p>
<p>The lights flickered, then buzzed to life. The hallway was messy, but empty. The Lunch Lady had vanished.</p>
<p>Mono carefully stood and turned, walking over to Six and holding down his hand to her to help her up. </p>
<p>She eyed his hand like it was a bear trap, and pushed herself up without it. </p>
<p>They both glanced around, absorbing the haunting silence and looking for where the Lunch Lady could have gone. Mono figured she must’ve turned back and went to the Cafeteria, but then why had she screamed? </p>
<p>Six inhaled sharply, and Mono looked at her. Her face was pointed upwards, and she raised her hand slowly, pointing at the ceiling of the hallway. </p>
<p>Mono followed her finger, and his shoulders sagged when he saw it too. </p>
<p>There the Lunch Lady was, frozen prosthetic limbs wrapped all around her. Metal fingers pressed into her mouth to silence her screams, wood arms hugged her tightly to the ceiling. Her chest barely moved, and Mono could barely hear her terrified, heaving breaths. </p>
<p>Suddenly, she jerked left and right, trying to free herself from their grip. He backed away cautiously as the Lunch Lady screamed and struggled to escape the grasp of the hundred suffocating limbs wrapped around her. She shook the entire ceiling, rattling the frozen limbs off each other, breaking some loose and letting them fall to the ground. A leg narrowly missed Mono, and other limbs landed around them as the ceiling rang and shook in her attempt at escape.</p>
<p>The lights flicked again, but the horrifying sight had Mono’s gaze glued to the ceiling as the Lunch Lady’s screams and whimpers grew darker, more breathy, more pained. </p>
<p>There was a buzzing sound, and the room was blinked into darkness. There was one very quiet whimper, and then complete silence. </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes, I know, the Lunch Lady's body is found in the secret room outside the cafeteria in the school. It's just her body though, she never REALLY got an appearance! I just really liked her concept art is all. <br/>Follow @Xeiniex on Tumblr for updates. I'm not @robotoxytocin anymore, so don't try to follow that one! Byeo!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. ןɐʇıdsoH ǝɥ⊥</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/>Chapter 5<br/>Mono sensed something sharp brush against his leg, and he kicked at it, hearing the limb slide across the floor and then the tap-tap-tap of it scurrying away.</p>
<p>He felt around in the darkness, hunting blindly for Six’s arm. His hands scuffed along something cold and hard, and he pushed it over. It clanged on the floor and rolled away, and the echoes of the fallen limbs dragging themselves around began to fill the hall.</p>
<p>“Six!” Mono yelled, still reaching around for her.</p>
<p>Something grabbed his elbow. Immediately panicking, he slapped it away like a mosquito before realizing what it was. It replied with an “Ow!” and grabbed his arm more firmly.</p>
<p>He grabbed her arm too, feeling the smooth plastic of Six’s raincoat under his hands. “Do you have a light?” she urged. </p>
<p>Mono shook his head. He then realized she couldn’t see him, and said, “No, my flashlight broke, remember?” There was a pounding sound, something metal jumping and stomping on the floor, getting closer to them, then away again. The scurrying continued through the darkness. </p>
<p>Six let go of his elbow. Mono panicked, reaching back for her and clutching her arm. </p>
<p>“Let go of me.” She told him. </p>
<p>Mono loosened his grip, but didn’t let go. He almost shook his head again, but caught himself and said, “We can find a way out together.”  </p>
<p>Six was silent. Mono jerked backwards, suddenly grabbed by something at the back of his neck. He gripped Six’s arm while scratching at his shoulders, trying to throw off whatever it was. Then he was yanked forward, barely able to hold on as six shot down the black hallway.</p>
<p>Mono finally swatted the wriggling hand off his back and ran alongside her, legs straining to keep up. Noises began surrounding them—long fingernails tapping on the floor, heavy appendages falling over and rolling down the hall, stomps of dismembered feet jumping and kicking at nothing—all filled the dreaded darkness of the hospital.</p>
<p>It was hard to tell where they were at first, but Mono knew immediately as they shot passed the darkened cafeteria, a bright glow catching his eye. The colorful standby TV screen played it’s empty beep from the buffet.</p>
<p>He planted his feet, pulling Six to a halt as he stared at the faint circle of light around the TV screen. </p>
<p>She nearly wrenched her arm out of his hand. “Quit it! We need to run!”</p>
<p>“There’s no where to run to.” Mono said. “But I have an idea.”</p>
<p>“Does your idea involve me getting almost turned into soup like the last one?” she angrily told him. </p>
<p>You wanted to stay in the cafeteria! If I hadn’t been there, you would’ve been boiled alive anyway! Mono wanted to say. He wasn’t brave enough to right now, and instead said, “No, I promise.” Before pulling her, gently, into the cafeteria. </p>
<p>She was jerked back, and Mono heard her fingernails scratching at rusted metal. He began to pull at her arm, trying to get her out of the grip of whatever zombie limb had her. </p>
<p>There was a painful sounding pop, and Six’s body fell forward on him. She huffed frustratedly, and he heard her heave up something and throw it across the room with a crash. Her hand slid back into his and he continued towards the buffet, mind too focused on survival to wonder what that horrific snapping noise was. </p>
<p> They raced to the stack of trays and began climbing up. The taps, scurries and rolls of robot limbs soon flooded the room with their alarming din. He could see only a small portion of the aluminum counter top in the light of the television set, and he ran to it, glancing out over the inky ocean of blackness that had fallen over the rest of the cafeteria.</p>
<p>The tone of the TV was painfully high pitched. The sound felt like it was tightening a knot in the back of his brain, pulling harder and harder the closer he got. He covered his ears and jumped into the ring of violet light, landing with a clang on the metal. Six followed him into the circle, the TV coloring her yellow raincoat with bright purple. Mono hated that color. </p>
<p>There were drums, noisy clinks, and heavy clunks as limbs began scaling the tray-ladder after them. They reminded Mono of the disembodied hands running amok in the hospital two day prior, the fleshy sounds of fingers crawling across the floor played with his nerves like an out-of-tune violin. </p>
<p> Six shrunk closer to the TV, nearly pressing her back to the screen, as one of the limbs succeeded in scaling the trays. </p>
<p>It was a three-fingered hand that dragged a plastic arm behind it like a tail. It was as long as Six and Mono standing on top of each other, and no matter how close it came to them, the light did nothing to freeze it. Mono’s hopes sunk into his gut as the plastic limb dragged itself nearer.</p>
<p>Behind it, there were crashes of other limbs starting up the rack, and they heard the mechanical scratches of them pulling and crawling closer. Underneath, Mono knew there were dozens more, feet and fingerless hands that rolled and suffocated anything they grasped. </p>
<p>An idea came to him, and his body filled with dread. How long ago was it, when he promised never to use his powers again? An hour or two? Now here he was, this plan jumping into his mind, half-finished and filling his body with a buzzing, powerful feeling. </p>
<p>Without warning, he grabbed Six’s hand and turned to the standby TV. Pressing his free hand into it, he hastily clawed at any signal he could find, any ghost, any semblance of a radio wave. He felt his hand start to sink into the screen as he tuned a signal that wasn’t there.</p>
<p>“Stop!” Six cried, but it was too late, and, like a vacuum, they were sucked into the TV. </p>
<p>The beep dropped in frequency, and Mono was blinded by the bright color spectrum surrounding him. </p>
<p>Inside the TV was frigidly cold. Cold and soft and hard to breathe in. Weirdly enough, the heavy breathing and moist atmosphere from the Tower’s Signal had left only void in it’s absence. It felt as though living things were not meant to be here.</p>
<p>Which they probably weren’t.</p>
<p> The ground vanished beneath him, but at the same time, the world was nothing but ropes and strings that marrionetted him in every direction. Hundreds of them, hundreds of directions to try and travel to. No single, heavy pull anymore, but thousands upon thousands of small ones that he couldn’t begin to untangle. Whatever he was holding on to get to this place had fallen from his grasp into the frenzied knot. </p>
<p>Everything was bright, brighter than Mono had ever seen. He pulled Six’s hand closer to his chest, holding tightly so she wouldn’t be lost, even though he wasn’t even sure where he was going. Tiny signals pushed and pulled at him, zipping him one way and then the other and the other. He flew, then he fell, then an invisible rope pull him left and right and forward and back, and then he wasn’t moving at all. </p>
<p>He was starting to feel sick. This wasn’t right, he couldn’t breathe, everything felt so wrong. There was nothing to anchor to, just hundreds of invisible strings, vanishing without a trace before he could even grab at them. He wasn’t meant to be here.</p>
<p>He started pushing back, back, back the way they’d come. Through the TV screen, through the cafeteria, anywhere but here. </p>
<p>Like wadding through cake batter, he pulled back, the strings tugging him left and right as the batter was stirred around, but he still pulled back. The frequency of the tone began to rise again.</p>
<p>Finally, he fell through the TV and dangled off the edge, holding on to Six’s hand. He pressed his feet into the screen and pulled at her, knowing that she was fairing far worse than he was in there. She fell out with a buzzing pop, the glass of the screen exploding out around her, and they both fell. He landed on his back, and everything went dark. </p>
<p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-<br/><em>Then, the darkness turned to violet. Haze surrounded him, the growling monster in the ocean crashed against the cliff’s edge. </em></p>
<p>
  <em>He felt a small hand in his own, but he didn’t turn to look as it tried to pull him away from the edge. He stared out over the cliff, trying to see through the mist, to spot a horizon that wasn’t there. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Despite feeling as though he was being pulled backwards, he didn’t move at all. The cliff stayed where it was, not getting any farther away.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Something was buzzing. A signal.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“You’re dead.” He heard his voice say.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>He was pulled back more strongly, a second hand grasping his wrist, tugging him away from the cliff. It would’ve hurt his shoulder, but this was a Nightmare. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Six’s voice called from over the cliff, “Help, help me! Please, Mono, I need help!”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Panic shot through his heart. She had fallen off the cliff! Mono wanted to run to the edge, reach down, reach for her hand. But whoever was pulling him back kept him away. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Instead, he tuned the signal, using it to squash the cliff, compress it down, so she could climb to the top.  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>The force pulling him back began jerking his arm, the tiny hands grasping around his elbow, pulling him away as hard as they could. He ignored the pull as the cliff sank, flattening out like a ball of clay under his palm. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>She needed help, he needed to help her, he needed to save her! He bent the Signal, and the world buzzed and wailed and tried to make him stop. The fingernails of the tiny hands dug into his arm, yanking, the clasp around his elbow tightening like a vise as it pulled.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“You’re dead.” His voice said again. No she wasn’t! He would save her, he was so close to saving her! He needed to save her, he needed to help!</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>He pulled at the Signal, trying to bring the cliff closer to him. He felt her, she was just over the side, just out of reach. He pulled the signal upwards, the cliff rumbling, the pulling on his arm growing almost painful (but it couldn’t be actual pain. This was only a Nightmare.) as it tried to wrench him away from the edge. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>There she was, there she was! A dark hand, much too large to be Six’s, reached over the cliff, it’s fingers clasping the edge. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“You’re dead, you’re dead, you aren’t supposed to…” his voice was saying as his blood froze in his veins. He couldn't move, despite the tug at his arm.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Another hand reached up, a familiar hand, huge and spindly and dark, remnants of a signal orbiting around it like flies. Mono stopped pulling at the Signal. “You’re dead! Go away! You’re dead, you’re dead, leave me alone!” he screamed as loud as he could. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>The thin hand glitched, the Signal growing powerful again. “Help! Grab the Signal, Mono, pull me up!” Six’s voice cut through the dream like a hot knife. It was clearer than a window, as perfect as her voice could ever be, no grumbles or scratchy coughs. Too perfect to be real.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Push, quickly.” She then whispered, not nearly as clearly. It was muffled, the volume growing and lessening, each ‘k’ sound in ‘quickly’ popping with static.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>He grasped the Signal, pushing it away. The dark hand was blown off the edge of the cliff, and Mono felt the tug loosen as he pushed back, back, away from the edge of the cliff, until only the purple haze surrounded him again. </em>
</p>
<p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-</p>
<p>He woke with a gasp, and only saw darkness around him. Glancing around in the blackness, he began to get to his feet, bit by bit, while gently rubbing his hip. There was another small, sharp inhale of someone waking from a Nightmare. He turned to it, reaching his hand into the darkness. “Are you…”</p>
<p>“Fine, I’m fine, leave me alone!” she shouted in a whisper. Mono dropped his hand quickly. </p>
<p>There was silence for a moment, and then he heard her gently get to her feet. “What… what did you do?” she muttered, her angry tone spiked with a small dash of awe. </p>
<p>Mono looked around. There was only darkness, but the ground was… strange feeling. He knelt down, pressing his hand into it. It was soft and bumpy, like styrofoam. A tingly dryness covered the tips of his fingers, and he brushed the dust off on his coat before looking up into the void of darkness. </p>
<p>He could hear buzzing, like a light bulb trying to turn itself on, not far from the floor where he stood. There were also the quiet, far-away scurrying sounds of the zombie limbs. The only difference was, these limbs were high overhead, clinking along the linoleum floor of the cafeteria above them. </p>
<p>It was too dark to see the styrofoam ceiling tiles they were walking on, but Mono quickly realized the gravity of their situation (or lack thereof).</p>
<p>He bent his neck to floor high over their heads, and jumped once to try and reach it. He fell back to the ceiling, the tile falling a little bit underneath him before landing back on it’s steel square. This was bad, this was really bad, he thought.  </p>
<p>He slumped down and buried his head in his arms. How could he even begin to fix this? Would they be stuck like this forever, like the doctor, running around upside down on the ceiling until they starved? Could they even go outside? Wouldn’t they fall up into the sky and eventually suffocate, or pop like balloons?</p>
<p>He clenched his teeth. Stupid, stupid, stupid! he yelled at himself. He should’ve known better. Why was he so dumb?! That, and what was with that Nightmare? Was he literally trying to pull the Thin Man back up? Had he learned NOTHING, absolutely <em>NOTHING</em> these last few days about being <em>careful</em> with his powers?!</p>
<p>The aching pain grew sharp in his side. He wondered if his hip actually was broken, if the bone was stabbing one of his organs right now, and he was bleeding internally but wasn’t smart enough to know it. Everything kind of hurt. It hurt to move, it hurt to think, it hurt to try and apologize to Six for getting her stuck in this just like he was. He just wanted to take a small breather, and wait for some of the pain to go away.</p>
<p>“I think… I think we’re safe here.” He said to Six. “Can we rest, just for a moment?” </p>
<p>He heard her inhale, as though she were preparing a response. It never came. Instead, he heard her sit on the ceiling across from him, her raincoat brushing at the tiles before a gentle silence fell over them both. </p>
<p>Mono exhaled. Most of him expected her to scoff and run away again, but she chose to stay. He wanted to say thank you, but he knew better. Instead, he shifted where he sat, trying to rest his hip in a more comfortable position. </p>
<p> The limbs still rattled over head, sometimes stomping and falling, trying to reach them. His hip was sore, but the stiller he lay, the less he could feel it. The darkness hid potential threats, the dust tickled his nose, and Six’s silence still managed to feel angry, despite her complete lack of speech. There wasn’t really anything restful about it.</p>
<p>He wished his brain could move on and try to come up with a way to fix their situation, but his thoughts were stuck repeating the same things over and over and over again. ‘You’re going to die’ flew back once or twice, but he was pretty able to shoo that one away. </p>
<p>‘She hates you’ was a lot harder to get rid of, no matter how much he tried to pin it down and squash it, it always popped back up, like a cockroach.</p>
<p>‘This is all your fault’, ‘freak’, and ‘Idiot’ were the most annoying ones, acting as high pitched mosquitoes in his ears that got louder and more annoying the more he focused on them. </p>
<p>However, ‘You’re just like HIM’ was the most powerful of them all. It was a freight train compared to the insects, chalky smoke pouring from its’ black chimneys as it barreled through his mind. and he tried to make himself smaller every time the train rang its’ deafening bells, hugging himself as though he were freezing cold, head bent to hide his already masked face. The thought was impossible to ignore, even more impossible to distract himself from.</p>
<p>Until he heard the humming. </p>
<p>He didn’t know how long he was laying there before Six started to hum. It was quiet, and a little off key, but her song was unmistakable. The echos of bells filled his mind as she gently sang her tune, airy and delightful. He listened and the monstrous train of thought began to fade into the same background buzz of the room. </p>
<p> Mono closed his eyes, swaying gently with her song. Everything started feel different, but also the same. He never noticed how soft his coat was, he didn’t realize how odd the graininess of the styrofoam felt under his naked feet, or how comforted the lightness of the bag over his head made him. </p>
<p>Mono had known from the day he freed Six <em>why</em> she loved her music box so much. She loved it for the same reason he loved his mask, or why some kids loved their stuffed dolls, or gnomes loved their hidey-holes. The melody lifted you and then dropped you, but you fell like a feather, not a stone. It was gentle and safe, like a hug or a soft blanket. It helped you hide the bad feelings, all the fear, and just feel… peaceful.</p>
<p>“Six?” he asked, very quietly. The humming stopped. Without the song, the blackness seemed even darker. </p>
<p>“…Does your song have any words?” he continued, his voice barely above a whisper.</p>
<p>She was quiet. He heard her shift softly on the tiles, her plastic coat scrapping along them and settling again, then her hands pressing down beside her. </p>
<p>“I don’t know,” She answered.  </p>
<p>Mono nodded. He remembered, again, that she couldn’t see him, and instead said, “That’s okay.” </p>
<p>It was kind of quiet again after that. </p>
<p>“Do…” he stopped. He wanted it to be a surprise present. That meant asking questions carefully. “Do you know if… there’s more like it? Or is that song special?” </p>
<p>She was silent again, thinking. “I… I don’t know,” She said after a breath. “I don’t think it was. There’s probably a lot of music boxes that play it, so it’s not really that special.” </p>
<p>“It’s special to you, though,” he said softly, pulling his knees to his chin.</p>
<p>She shifted again, and was silent for a long time. He was silent too. </p>
<p>“…Yeah. I guess.” She finally mumbled. </p>
<p>A tranquil hush blanketed over them as they listened to the limbs scuttling around overhead. Mono let his legs relax, wiggling so his hip wouldn’t ache. He wished, silently, that they could sit together in the dark forever, and pretend the world wasn’t so scary.</p>
<p>“Can… will you keep humming it? Please?” he asked, entirely ready for her to decline.</p>
<p>The silence between them was heavy. Then, after a long pause, she started humming again. It was soft, not loud enough to fill the room, but loud enough to fill Mono. He closed his eyes again, and swayed along with the lullaby, letting the thoughts in his head wash away with every slightly-off-key note in the song.</p>
<p> When the end of the song approached, she started again, looping the tune delicately. Once in a while, she’d skip a measure, or go too high on a note. He didn’t mind, and he didn’t think she minded either. </p>
<p>She didn’t stop singing for a long time. When she did, the peacefulness remained for a few minutes between them, and Mono refused to open his eyes. </p>
<p>He heard her stand up, and walk over to him. Her hand brushed at his arm. “Come on. You need to find a TV and fix this.” </p>
<p>Mono stood, arm falling from her hand. “I’m sorry.” He admitted.</p>
<p>She didn’t reply, and he heard her footsteps walk across the tiles away from him. He followed, until he smacked into a wall. </p>
<p>His hand flew up to rub his forehead, Six giggled. </p>
<p>He pointed, warning her, “There’s a wall there.”  </p>
<p>“Yeah, I know.” She laughed.</p>
<p>They walked along the wall, Mono running his hand along the greasy tiles. He heard Six tap her fingernails on metal, and then she grunted as she hefted herself onto something. He walked towards the sound, then felt her hand on his shoulder. “There’s a vent here, idiot.” </p>
<p>He wasn’t an idiot, he wanted to say, but He didn’t. She was just teasing, he hoped. </p>
<p>He lifted himself into the vent. It bent a little under his weight, but it wasn’t a dangerous sound. They crawled through the dark, cramped tunnel, taking small breaths to keep the dust from filling their lungs. Six halted, Mono almost bumping into her. </p>
<p>“What?” he asked, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she carefully went forward, and he heard her hand grab at something. </p>
<p>“There’s a hole,” she told him. “And a ladder.” </p>
<p>“Be careful.” He said to her. </p>
<p>“Don’t push me.” She warned him in response, and she started down the ladder. Up the ladder. No, down was right. </p>
<p>He reached over, his hand slipping on the first rung. He grabbed it more tightly and carefully descended above her. She dropped down not long after wards, and stepped along the metal ground of the vent. He dropped after her.</p>
<p>Three stripes of light fell across the floor overhead. There was a grate blocking the vent, and Six crawled forward, pushing on it. </p>
<p>Mono reached up, pushing along the bottom. It barely opened, like a metal flap. She stood and pushed with him, and they both were able to crawl out of the vent and onto the foam-tile ceiling of a large playroom. </p>
<p>Mono stared up at the floor. He was silently thankful he didn’t get motion sick easily, and smiled under his mask at how all the toys looked like they were nailed to the ceiling. The light for the room all came from a window in the wall across from them, a slight breeze blowing the curtains upside-down over their heads. It couldn’t have been an outdoor window, it was long and way too reflective. If it wasn’t broken open, Mono would’ve believed in an instant it was just a regular mirror. </p>
<p>He craned his neck, trying to see if he could find a music box among all the toys as he walked across the ceiling. Stuffed bears, toy blocks, a few picture books in a basket on the table, a black rat running across the floor…</p>
<p>That wasn’t a rat. Mono stared up at the floor, trying to spot her again. He could swear Six’s shadow dashed across the room only a moment ago, but it had vanished. </p>
<p>A chill ran down his spine. Why was it following them? Glitched remains usually stood where they stood, or sat where they sat, silent and unmoving. Sometimes, they would dance in place, or sobbed into their arms, but they never really moved to a different area. </p>
<p>Something dark caught his eye, and a black rat actually did scurry from under the bookshelf to the table. It was just a rat, he told himself. They weren’t being followed by anything. </p>
<p>He ran to catch up with Six, who was jumping up to grab the top of the window sill.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” Mono asked, taking a step back as she jumped again to try and grab the edge.</p>
<p>She ignored him, instead staring through the window at the cavernous pit that split the hospital in two. She inhaled like she was about to say something, but was immediately interrupted as the quake began.</p>
<p> Mono quickly knelt down, and Six followed suit. The entire room rumbled, and a layer of dust fell from the ceiling. There was a loud crash, and a sudden pounding coming from within the vent that echoed into the room. Mono glanced over, and watched as a stream of dirty water began trickling up from the vent towards the floor over their heads. It stained the brown wallpaper, darkening it and making it wrinkle. The shaking stopped, but the pouring water persisted. </p>
<p>It wasn’t fast enough to make Mono worry about drowning or anything. It just made him thankful they got out of the vent when they did. </p>
<p>He heard a small banging sound by the window, and turned to see Six jumping on the corner of the ceiling tile. The tile wiggled beneath her every time she landed, before gravity pulled it back to it’s metal square. He stood slowly and walked over, jumping on it once, trying to land as heavily as he could. </p>
<p>The tile fell inward at a slant, sticking on the wiring below it, making a precarious ramp upwards to the window. Six carefully walked up the ramp to it, and stood on the edge, looking out over the emptiness.</p>
<p>Mono tiptoed up the ramp and stared with her. Hospital beds, hanging by frayed ropes, dangled upside down over the pale abyss. No matter which direction gravity was pulling them, they would fall into oblivion if they slipped even a little. </p>
<p>Six jumped for it before he could even grasp just how large the gap had become. She landed on the underside of a bed that looked like it was standing on three ropes that stretched down into nothing. She didn’t wait for him to follow, instead running and leaping onto the underside of another bed.</p>
<p>Mono stared up, into the nothing below them. He stared down at the nothing above them. He sighed, backed away from the window, and gave a running jump to the damp bed. He landed with a soft thud and scampered after Six as she hopped from platform to platform. </p>
<p>Mono only slipped once, needing to swing down onto a bottom bunk instead of running across the top one. His hip still hurt, but it didn’t throb with each beat of his heart every time he jumped on something. The resting helped a little bit. </p>
<p>Finally, Six halted right before a massive gap between the bed and the continued tiles of the hospital ceiling. Mono caught up with her, and they both surveyed the area, looking for a better way to parkour across. There was a narrow two-by-four below them that lay half off one of the beds. Mono carefully reached down to it and pressed his hand into it. It didn’t budge. </p>
<p>Cautiously, he lowered one foot down, stepping onto the precarious board. It jiggled under his foot, so he stilled.</p>
<p>His heartbeat grew in volume in his ears, a snare drum rapidly pounding in his ears. Thankfully, the board didn’t move. </p>
<p>He began to walk down the length of it, and made it about halfway across when he heard it groan. He froze, not daring to move, as the board began lowering under him, teeter-tottering under his weight. Fear clutching him, Mono ran for the other side as quickly as he could, lifting the board beneath him with each step. He leaped for the edge of the ceiling, barely gripping the twisted metal as the board slipped off the bed behind him and suddenly flew upwards into the abyss overhead.</p>
<p>He grunted, pulling himself up onto the ceiling, and turned back to Six, who stood on the bed watching the board fly away into nothing. </p>
<p>“Hey!” He called, reaching his hand out. She turned back to him and stared at his outstretched hand. Mono half expected her to not even bother, and instead eventually get across some other way. However, he was pleasantly surprised when she took a running leap, vaulting over the gap and seizing his arm painfully as her legs smacked into the wall of the hospital beneath her.</p>
<p>The heavy force of catching her almost pulled Mono down into the sky too, but he quickly caught himself and, without hesitating, pulled her up onto the ceiling. He smiled under his mask, wanting to make a joke about <em>him</em> catching <em>her</em> for once, but the thought quickly dissipated as she walked away from him, not bothering to look back or ask if he was alright. He followed after her, his heart hurting just a little.</p>
<p>The hall they walked down was lined with the window-mirrors, like the one they saw in the other playroom. However, these were outside-looking-in, and they both peered through the glass at the cells on the other side. </p>
<p>Each playroom was scattered with toys that looked like they were stapled to the ceiling. Toy trains that still ran, swings that hung upside down, towers of wood blocks that hung downward like stalactites. One room they passed was completely empty, a concrete cell with no amusement in sight. Across the hall from that one was a room filled with meat, organs all piled up in the center like back in the Hunter’s snares, dangling down from the floor with flies buzzing all around it. </p>
<p>The cells grew darker the farther down the hall they went, until only the ones with lamps were still lit. Mono searched through each one, his eyes darting over the books and toys and toddler’s dining room sets. More than once, his gaze landed on a stupid salt shaker toy that looked suspiciously like Six’s music box, except when he stared directly at it.</p>
<p>“There!” Six yelled, and Mono jolted around, readying to bolt in whatever direction he needed to. </p>
<p>There was no monster, though. Instead, Six pointed at one of the depressing windows. Mono blinked at it, and Six started towards the one-way-mirror that lead into that Playroom. </p>
<p>“Is there something special about that room?” he asked, peering over her to see if there was a music box in there. No luck, just a television and a chair with a doll in it. </p>
<p>Six’s yellow hood bobbed up and down in a nod. “There’s a TV. You’re going to help me through so I can get back on the ground again.” </p>
<p>“Through another TV?” he stuttered. He didn’t want to, he didn’t want to use his power at all. He glanced up at the floor of the hall, searching or some other kind of solution to this, any other kind of solution. Something moved, but probably just another rat.</p>
<p>“Hurry up.” She responded, already tapping on the glass. “Can’t you smash this?” </p>
<p>Was that a rat? Mono squinted into the darkness. It was too large to be a rat. </p>
<p>“Hey.” Six called. </p>
<p>It wasn’t a rat. Mono held is breath as his neck craned, watching as Six’s shadow tip-toed down the hall, jumping from black floor tile to black floor tile. He bent his neck so much that he fell backward, sitting down and watching her jump around. She walked over to a metal gurney and slid beneath it, disappearing from view.</p>
<p>Something bad was about to happen, Mono knew it. Something awful, something terrible was at their heels, something was chasing them right now. </p>
<p>“Hey!” Six called again, but Mono was entranced. Slowly, her shadow reemerged from under the gurney, glitching, spitting, and buzzing with a lost signal. Hugged close to her chest was a rusty,<br/>Blue,<br/>Well-loved,<br/>music box. </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>There was a BUNCH of concept art for an upside-down section of The Hospital level. I think it was cut cause it's really similar to Limbo, and the devs didn't want to seem too similar for copyright reasons, but dang it I wanted an upside down puzzle! Anyway, thanks for reading, do please leave a comment! I absolutely LOVE when I get comments, no matter what they say. Have a awesome day!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Falling Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mono couldn’t peel his eyes off of her. She held the music box close to her chest and dashed down the hall, her footsteps making no sounds except for the occasional buzz when they glitched in a given direction. </p>
<p>Looking at the music box, an old memory woke in his mind. </p>
<p><em>All you ever do is ruin things and destroy things! I hate you!</em> Six’s words still stung inside him. He said he was sorry, she didn’t believe him. Was…</p>
<p>was there something wrong with her? Was she sick?</p>
<p>He knew it was probably overthinking, he usually was. But… she was being so strange. She was talking more, she was more stubborn, her eyes… were different. There was no doubt something awful happened to her in the tower, that was obvious, but Mono didn’t want to think about that, much less talk about it! In fact, the less they discussed the tower, the better.  Was she sick? Did the Thin Man hurt her so she was acting this way now…?</p>
<p>He was being selfish, his thoughts told him. Blaming her, calling her sick? He was the one that kept getting her into danger in the first place, she said so herself. No, she wasn’t sick, he was just a Monster, just like the Thin Man. </p>
<p>He wasn’t like the Thin Man.</p>
<p>He was.</p>
<p>No, he wasn’t.</p>
<p>Yes, he was! </p>
<p>No! He cared about people, he wanted to help people, he wanted to do good things and nice things and kind things and help Six be happy and be safe with her and be her best friend and give her lots of presents, gifts, toys, books, songs, a home, everything they never really had! He wanted to give her something she loved, something that proved how much he cared about her, how much he loved her, how much he trusted her! </p>
<p>And there that thing goes, vanishing away into darkness. He shot down the hall, barely thinking, after Six’s shadow.  </p>
<p>“Where-?!”</p>
<p>“To get you a present!” he interrupted rudely, but he didn’t care. All he could think about right then was making Six happy.</p>
<p>His feet made tiny taps on the styrofoam ceiling tiles as he ran after her, ears straining to hear the occasional buzz or glitching sound. He rounded a sharp bend and saw the silhouette of Six throwing the music box up onto a table, pale light emitting from the window level with the table’s surface. This was a real window, with glass panes, and Mono could see the wall of another, different building just outside of it.  </p>
<p>He ran towards her, watching as she jumped and pulled herself up on top of the table. She grabbed the music box, and began carefully tip-toeing along a wooden plank laid on the window’s ledge. </p>
<p>Mono ran up to the top of the window, pressing his hands and forehead into it as he watched Six’s shadow carry the music box along the board. Halfway across the plank, she halted. Then, slowly, turned and stared up at him. </p>
<p>Her face was featureless, the same dark gray as her raincoat. Flying, glitched debris buzzed around her, but she ignored it as she stared up him. </p>
<p>Mono slammed his hands on the window. Why was she teasing him? Did she know he wanted the music box? How could she know that?!</p>
<p>She put the music box down on the board, and pointed at it, still staring at him. </p>
<p>His head tilted a little to the side. </p>
<p>She then pointed at herself, and then the music box again. Mono slumped. Was she… it? It. Glitched remains were its, not shes. What was it trying to tell him? Let it keep the music box? Give the music box to Six? </p>
<p>The figure slumped over suddenly, hugging it’s abdomen. Then, it stood straight again, pointing up at Mono and then at itself. Finally, it held out both its’ hands, and clapped them together. They didn’t make any sound. </p>
<p>Now, Mono was purely confused. The shadow wanted him to…absorb it? Maybe? What did that have to do with stealing the music box? </p>
<p>The Shadow picked up the music box again, and ran with it down the rest of the board, leaving Mono completely bewildered.</p>
<p>He shook his head, ignoring the strange occurrence, and grabbed the top of the window sill, pulling himself up. </p>
<p>Glancing down, the cloudy sky stretched upwards forever. It was growing a little darker shade of blue, meaning it was getting close to nighttime. Overhead, the misty alleyway was packed with trash bags and garbage. </p>
<p>Mono assessed the area, trying to find any safer way he could get to the other building. The board the Shadow walked on was way too far over his head for him to reach. </p>
<p>He needed to hurry, his thoughts said. She’s getting away with what might be the only music box in the entire city!</p>
<p>He could just… jump for it. He stared over at the other building, his eyes landing on the metal fire escape that zigg-zagged down the side. He could jump, grab that, and climb down to the window. </p>
<p>He grabbed the lower pane of the window and pulled himself up, balancing carefully. He leaned back, reached his hand out, and jumped as strong as he could. </p>
<p>Both hands were stretched out in front of him as he reached for the metal rail of the fire escape. He grabbed at it, hand wrapping around it as his feet dangled towards the sky. </p>
<p>It was too wet. He scratched at the rail, trying to get a better grip, but his hands slipped off. </p>
<p>He scrambled, grabbing for another bar hastily as he flew up towards the clouds. His hand clasped around the edge of one of the wire steps, and he grabbed tightly, almost stuffing his hand between the steel wires to keep from falling again. </p>
<p>He hung like that, gasping for breath, the stench of garbage from the alley below faintly wafting up to him and polluting his nose. </p>
<p>He glanced back at the window, which was now several meters below him. Six stood on the other side, hands pressed into the glass, staring at him. Her eyes still held that shrinking gaze. </p>
<p>Mono inhaled, and began climbing his way down the fire escape, grabbing slit after slit in the stairs like monkey bars. When he finally reached the next flight down, he carefully let go, landing on the underside of the steps above him. </p>
<p>He walked down the steps in reverse, rotating his shoulder to keep it from aching more. When he got to the step level with the window, he turned to Six and held out his hand to catch her. </p>
<p>This time, she didn’t even bother. She climbed onto the sill and leaping across the alley, grabbing the rail like he tried to do, and dropping herself up onto the step. </p>
<p>Mono inhaled, about to ask if she was alright, when she cut him off and said, “The only reason I’m following you is because you’re going to fix this.”</p>
<p>Mono sealed his lips as she pointed an accusing finger at his chest. “You pulled me through that TV in the first place. I don’t care what your stupid head is doing, or why you’re stupidly chasing after one of those stupid shadow things.” She pointed back at the hospital. “Now, we can’t get back to the only TV we found, instead I had to jump over this stupidly huge gap, almost slipped and fell all because you’re a tiny, little, stupid, dumb idiot.” </p>
<p>Mono stared at her, a strangely empty feeling filling his chest. Maybe he was more used to hearing it out loud, or he was so used to calling himself stupid. For whatever reason, the insult didn’t hurt as much as other things she said. </p>
<p>In fact, the confused, curious voice from earlier was resurfacing in his mind. There was something wrong with her, there had to be! She never called him stupid before, she didn’t call anything stupid, not even the monsters they ran from. She used to barely talk at all! Was she just that angry at him? Or did something… make her this way? </p>
<p>He didn’t want to talk about the tower. </p>
<p>He wouldn’t talk about the tower. </p>
<p>“I’m sorry.” He said. </p>
<p>Six’s eyes narrowed. “I’m finding a TV, and you’re fixing this. No running away again.” She started down the stairs, huffing. “Once I’m on the ground again, I’m leaving. If you follow me, I swear I will snitch you to the first monster I see, got it?” </p>
<p>Nobody joked about death. It was too common to catch anybody off-guard as a punchline. Everyone, at some point, had either killed someone or watched someone else be killed. Everyone was desensitized to death, so there was no way it could surprise you in a joke, no way it could make you laugh. That’s why, when Mono heard Six say those words, he knew in an instant she meant them.  </p>
<p>He really didn’t want to be sure. “You don’t mean that.” He stuttered, following down after her. </p>
<p>She halted and turned to him quickly. Her eyes pierced his mask, his face, his mind. They ran like bullet made of ice colder than the coldest rain Mono had ever felt. “I meant every word.” She whispered, her voice frigid. </p>
<p>They continued down the stairs, Mono forcing himself to breathe slowly. With every step they walked down, his lips spasmed downward, but he forced them up again. </p>
<p>“There.” Six pointed through the window. Mono sniffed as quietly as he could, and blinked several times to make the scene less blurry. </p>
<p>An upside down grocery store was laid out above him. Rows of wooden bins half-empty with rotting fruit lined the ceiling, flies buzzing all over them. Balanced on a bin of coal-black bananas was a television set, ringing with it’s awful tone. Weirdly, the colors were reverse the order they were before, as though someone had flipped the screen upside-down. </p>
<p>Six climbed quickly over the sill, not even glancing back, and started towards the TV. Mono heaved himself over and walked a little behind her, still trying to hold back tears, when she inhaled sharply. Her body jerked forward and she wrapped her arms around her abdomen.</p>
<p>Mono jolted away on reflex. Six keeled over, hugging herself, as her stomach made a low, wet grumble. </p>
<p>Mono’s eyes widened, confusion quickly clouding his mind. “You… just ate.” He muttered. </p>
<p>She ignored him and hobbled forward towards a broken sign, dangling over one of the aisles. Her stomach rumbled and she crumpled again, huddling around herself and falling to her knees.</p>
<p>Mono shook his head from his mild stupor, and turned to the sign she was running for. “I can… I-I’ll be right back.” He shot for it, grabbing one of the thin, upside-down chains and climbing down the broken sign to the shelf above him. </p>
<p>The shelf was lined with boxes, packages, and jars with wilting labels. Mono silently wished he could read as he grabbed one of the jars at random and dropped from the sign with it hugged to his chest. He felt like he was floating, for a moment, as he landed lightly on the ceiling tiles. Gripping the heavy jar over his head as it dangled to the floor above, he ran back over to Six.</p>
<p>“Here!” he said, flipping it upside down and trying to pry the lid off. It wouldn’t budge. </p>
<p>Six continued to pant, curled up on the ceiling like an injured dog. </p>
<p>Mono’s hands burned as he tried to twist the cap off the jar. It wasn’t working, and he placed it on the ceiling to try and get a better grip. </p>
<p>It flew upwards, shattering on the tile floor above them. Mono stared at it for only a second before he slumped. Why couldn’t he do anything right?</p>
<p>Six groaned in pain. He quickly turned and ran back to the chain, climbing down and grabbing one of the giant packages instead. The label was in the shape of a pig, and it was much lighter than the jar. He fell back to the ceiling and ran over, opening the bag as he ran. “Here!” he said, slowing and holding the bag out to her gently. “Eat these.” </p>
<p>Six panted, her hood turning to him, but not enough for him to see her face. She lunged at him, grabbing at the chip bag. Her nails clawed at his arm so hard he felt it through his coat as he yelped in surprise at her attack. </p>
<p>Mono released the bag and quickly backed away as she tore into it, chips occasionally flying to the floor above them as she shoved handfuls into her mouth at a time. </p>
<p>He watched, amazed and kind of grossed out, as she ravenously ate the entire, viewer-sized bag’s worth of chips, her crunching and smacking filling the lifeless store, not any more pleasant than the annoying high-pitched beep of the TV.  </p>
<p>After a minute, Six finally slowed, rubbing her mouth with her sleeve as she dropped the bag, letting it float listlessly upward and landing softly on the floor. </p>
<p>Mono watched her for a moment. Her head was pointing down, like she was trying to hide her face from him on purpose. Both her hands were curled into fists at her sides, and her breathing was starting to slow once again. </p>
<p>He carefully got to his feet, and held out his hand to her. “Do you feel okay?” he asked. </p>
<p>“No.” She muttered, passing him and making her way to the chain. </p>
<p>Mono dropped his hand. He couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What’s wrong?” </p>
<p>She ignored him, grabbing the chain and starting to climb up. </p>
<p>“Six, what’s wrong?” he asked again. It wasn’t the first time she remained silent, but this was important. </p>
<p>Yet, she ignored him, grabbing the shelf and pulling herself to its underside. </p>
<p>“Six.” Mono said, walking over to her. “Tell me what’s wrong. I want to help you!”</p>
<p>“I want to help you.” She mimicked him, peering off the ledge down at him. “Try leaving me alone.” </p>
<p>“Six!” he cried, throwing his hands down. He paused, forcing himself to take a long breath. Finally, he unclenched his hands and asked, “Please, Six, please tell me what’s wrong. I don’t want to see you… like that.” </p>
<p>“Then deal.” She said, crossing her arms. “It’s who I am.” </p>
<p>“No, it’s not.” He told her, grabbing the ledge of the shelf and pulling himself up. “I think you’re sick, or there’s something wrong with you!” he tried to explain, walking up to her.</p>
<p>Six glared at him from under her hood. He couldn’t see her eyes, of course, but he could feel the heat of her stare. “You think there’s something wrong with me?” </p>
<p>Mono froze, realizing what he said. “That’s not what I meant.” </p>
<p>“Do you…” she said, walking up to him as she gestured to herself. “Think there’s something wrong with me?” </p>
<p>The TV beep was suddenly much quieter. The room almost felt silent, holding its breath, waiting for him to respond. </p>
<p>Mono spread his hands in front of him. “I meant… I meant…” his words wouldn’t come out, and they slowly grew quieter, like they were running away from this situation. </p>
<p>Six’s arms fell to her sides, and she stared at him with disbelief for a moment before turning away again. She walked a small ways, staring up at the line of jars and food over their heads. “I… kinda think so too.” She whispered. </p>
<p>Mono shook his head. “No, Six. Don’t say that.” His hand brushed at her arm. She jerked out of the way, her glare returning to him. </p>
<p>“Not like that, you idiot!” she yelled. “I know who I am! Unlike you, I don’t need other people to tell me nice things and hold my hand all the time!”</p>
<p>Mono froze.</p>
<p>Her words unfolded themselves in his mind like a telegram, as he read them, over and over and over again. </p>
<p>“I mean, I feel hungry. All the time.” She continued, apparently oblivious to Mono’s sudden stoicism. “And I didn’t used to feel like this. I was hungry, sure, but not this hungry. And I don’t like it.” She wrapped her arms around her body, hugging herself. “I don’t like it, because sometimes it gets really bad and it hurts. And I don’t think I’m scared of it, because I can’t feel anything when I’m like that, I just feel hungry. And after, I can’t feel anything, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, should I be full? Cause I’m not! I don’t know, I don’t know, I’m scared and it’s stupid. It’s stupid, and I have other things. Other things to do. Other… places. To be.” Her words slowed as they streamed from her mouth, barely sensible at some parts. Finally, she pressed her lips closed and stared at the ceiling below them.  </p>
<p>Mono… at this point, he didn’t even know how to describe how he felt. He didn’t really have anything to compare it to, nothing that made sense in his head. It wasn’t really a gong, because a gong eventually stopped ringing. It wasn’t really an emptiness either, because an emptiness had a signal somewhere he could latch on to. It wasn’t really a weight, because weights made you stronger the longer you held them. Or maybe it was like all three, a loud crashing gong being struck again and again, over an infinite static emptiness, filled with a heavy haze that made it hard to breathe and see. </p>
<p>That wasn’t his feeling, however. The reason he felt that way wasn’t because Six called him an idiot, or said he needed to hold hands, or even because she hated him. </p>
<p>He felt that way because Six admitted… </p>
<p>She was scared. </p>
<p>And he didn’t know how to fix it. </p>
<p>She turned, walking down the shelf towards where the TV perched on the fruit bin. </p>
<p>Mono followed. </p>
<p>She took a deep breath and jumped, grabbing the ledge of the fruit bin and scooting over to the TV screen. </p>
<p>Mono followed. </p>
<p>She pointed at the TV, making sure to catch his eye as they dangled upward. </p>
<p>She’s going to leave, Mono thought as he stared at the brightly colored screen. </p>
<p>He carefully reached one hand over, pressing it into the colors. It tingled under his fingers. Six latched onto his other arm. He could fix this one thing, and then she’d leave and wouldn’t let him follow. </p>
<p>The Signal scurried away from him, and shot back, then faded into shadow before coming back at him with full force. He grabbed it, and felt his hand start to sink into the glass screen.</p>
<p>What was he doing?! His thoughts cried. Don’t use your powers, you barely made it out the first time, they screamed. If you fix this, you’ll never see her again, they wailed. </p>
<p>The signal latched back onto him, and pulled both kids into the TV set.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This took me way too long to try and unravel. I was on again and off again for this chapter so many times it's not even funny, I had no idea how to get it onto paper. However, this feels good, and I don't want to delay the story anyway. Some stuff still feels inconsistent, but I hope it's not too jarring :T<br/>Fun thing too, I recently watched the Ring (both "Ringu" and the American "The Ring") and they were both really good, makes me sad I waited so long to watch them. I vibe with cursed TV powers too much smh. have a great day!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Well, Well, Well</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The moment he pushed through the screen, the beep dropped in pitch. Mono was determined, this time, to not get lost between all the pulling and pushing puppet strings, as he gripped the signal with an iron hold. </p><p>Once again, it was getting hard to breathe, and he wondered for a moment if he could actually do this. He ignored that thought as they swam deeper into the signals, jolting up and down with each violent tug from every given direction. </p><p>It was hard to pinpoint exactly what broke gravity last time they were in the TV, but he figured it was because he got so twisted around while searching for a way back. With all the blinding colors and shrieking static, focusing only grew more and more challenging the farther in he followed. The signal  suddenly weakened, and it came crashing back to him before shooting away, like a hyperactive puppy on a leash. He followed it as other signals pulled and faded, pulled and faded.</p><p>Something else was fading. The pressure on his arm was loosening, and he glanced at Six to see what was wrong. Her head was slumped forward, like she was sleeping, and her hand was starting to fall away from him. He wondered if she couldn’t breathe, if it was too hard for her to try and navigate with him, when he noticed something else. It took him a moment to see it, but it was unmistakable. Mono’s eyes widened.</p><p>A long, gray stream had wrapped around her body and was gently pulling her away, like a body floating in a river.<br/>
 <br/>
He dropped the signal he was following and grabbed Six’s arm, tugging her away from the gray stream. The stream pulled back. <br/>
Mono had played this game of Tug of War before, and he didn’t like that he remembered how it felt. With nothing to hold on to, they both starting being pulled by the Signal, deeper and deeper into the static. </p><p>Mono’s heart sped up, and he acted fast, clawing for any signal he could get his hands on. This wasn’t possible, he was dead. He grabbed one, and the game resumed as he pulled at Six’s unconscious body. The gray stream jolted angrily, and began pulling harder and harder. Mono gripped Six’s arm for dear life.</p><p><em>Maybe he should let go</em>, his thoughts said suddenly. <em>Honestly. She’s thankless. Stupid. Sick. She even said she’d let you die. Why are you doing this for her, when she’d never do the same? </em></p><p>The Signal he was latched onto weakened, and he started being pulled once again. He shook his head, gripping Six’s arm so tightly he wondered if he might hurt her on accident. He knew that voice. It was supposed to be dead, after all. </p><p>The Signal he was using to pull with vanished. For a moment, he dreaded he let it go.</p><p>Then, with a pull so hard it hurt, the Signal returned and they both shot backwards, the gray stream dropping Six and vanishing into the ocean of channels as they shot through at lightning speed. </p><p>Mono had almost no time to act as they were spit out of a TV screen and began falling. He held Six as tightly to his chest as he could, and they landed with a thud on something soft and bumpy, and all around them were the high-pitched screams of lost signals. He shook his head a few times, forcing himself to come to. They weren’t in the grocery store anymore.</p><p>His gaze went up, higher and higher, climbing the walls of the pit until he saw a large circle of gray sky overhead. The walls of the hole were lined from the bottom to the top with Televisions, each one decorated with the colorful stripes, and each one playing it’s awful, horrible beep. They echoed off each other, one monstrous voice, louder than his thoughts.</p><p>Mono covered his ears, trying to make it stop. It was so horrible. It stabbed through the back of his head, but not like a knife would—knives were sharp, clean, stung only for a minute. No, this sound felt like a rusted, dirty garden trowel was being drilled into his spinal chord. </p><p>He wanted it to stop.</p><p>He would make it stop. </p><p>He reached out, ready to destroy every single TV set within a five mile radius. He hated that sound, he hated it so much, hated it…</p><p>The grip around his arms shook him violently, and he opened his eyes. Six stared at him narrowly, grasping both his hands in front of him, then quickly dropped them and pointed over his shoulder. </p><p>He turned, and realized what the floor was made of. Thousands of corpses, unmoving bodies and flesh, covered the bottom of the pit. There were so many bodies, the floor wasn’t even visible under them all. A mass of flesh and limbs, some with the skin still on, some with it long peeled from the muscles. And they started to move.</p><p> Mono glanced back at the TVs that walled the hole. There had to be a way out. </p><p>Something silver caught his eye, glinting in the magenta light. It took him a quick moment to realize what it was, but he quickly ran to it, pulling Six along behind him. </p><p>They carefully stepped over the flesh and dodged protruding limbs that snatched at them. The silver object was a pail that was just big enough to fit them both. A long, brown rope tied the handle of the pale to a board hanging over the pit, and upon seeing it, Mono understood where they were. </p><p>All the empty clothes they saw, all the half-finished tasks, abandoned by people who were never found… all those bodies ended up here. This is here they sat, ready to be incorporated into the flesh of the tower, adding to it’s mass of muscles and blood and eyes. </p><p>However, the tower was gone. The Well remained, now purposeless, full or rotting corpses.</p><p>And all wells have buckets. </p><p>He quickly tipped the bucket upright and gestured for Six to get in with him. As she crawled in, he gripped the rope, pulling upwards towards the sky. He was only able to pull the bucket a few inches before his hands began to hurt. </p><p>Six turned away from the flesh pit and grabbed the rope as well, heaving up with him. It made it much easier, and they both began to ascend, the horrible tone still surrounding them as they pulled themselves high above the floor, up and up and up, towards the gray sky, the rope squeaking with every tug. </p><p>Finally, they pulled up to the side of the Well, and Six quickly climbed out, tipping the bucket and Mono with it onto the floor above the pit. He scrambled out, accidentally hitting the bucket off the side as he did so, and it tumbled back into the well. They didn’t hear it land. </p><p>Both kids carefully peered into the pit. Mono resisted the urge to cover his ears again to get rid of that painful beep as it poured upwards, wailing at them to jump back in. Instead, he took a few steps away to asses their location. </p><p>The sky they saw was actually emitting from a gaping hole above them, the pit creating a missive sinkhole in the street. Behind them, the subway tunnel they were in extended into untrustworthy darkness. On the other side of the pit, the tunnel continued into even more untrustworthy darkness. They were trapped.</p><p>At the very least, if nothing else, he was glad gravity seemed back in working order, with the sky high above their heads. </p><p>“Where did you take me?” Six demanded, turning to him. The light from overhead hit her hood just perfectly to cast a dark shadow over her eyes. He couldn’t hear her very well over the awful beeps.</p><p> “Are you okay?” He asked, walking even farther from the hole out of fear of falling in.<br/>
 <br/>
“Answer my question first.” She said, crossing her arms and stomping up to him.  </p><p>He took a step back. “I don’t know. Now answer mine.” </p><p>“Oh, great!” She responded loudly, throwing hers up. A blackbird cawed and flew off above them. “Just another stupid decision that’s put our lives at ris-”</p><p>“Answer my question!” Mono yelled. He didn’t know why he yelled. He hadn’t even realized he was frustrated. His voice echoed down the dark tunnel, bouncing back and forth off the concrete walls, reverberating through the empty blackness like a heartbeat. </p><p>Six huffed. “Why do you care?”</p><p>He inhaled. Why did he care? Why <em>did</em> he care? </p><p>He exhaled. Why, exactly, did he care?</p><p>He knew why. </p><p>“You’re my best friend.” He said, gently. “You’re my only friend, and it scares me when you get hurt, and I don’t like seeing you get hurt. I want to make sure you’re okay, because I care about you, Six, and when you went limp in the TV, it scared me.” He held up his hands, as though that might help voice his emotions. “I heard… his voice, and I think he had you, for a second there. Which…” he put his hands down, and stared at the ground. “Which doesn't make sense! He’s dead, I killed him! But I heard him, I saw… I didn’t see him, but I felt him. And I was scared for you. So, please.” He inhaled, then exhaled, once again. “Tell me, please. Are you okay?”</p><p>Six stared at him for a second, then looked down the tunnel behind him, as though she could see something through the darkness, as though she was watching something just out of sight. For that moment, Mono thought he saw her. That maybe, he saw the girl he saved from the Hunter’s cabin. </p><p>“I’m…” she began, before going quiet, shaking her head. In an instant, she was gone. “I’m not your friend.” She told him. “So stop worrying so much about me.”<br/>
 <br/>
Mono felt the gong player readying his mallet, but he stopped him before he could strike the drum. He sighed, quietly and, as nicely as he could, he slid his hand into Six’s. </p><p>“Yes, you are.” He told her. “You don’t have to be my friend back, but I’ll always be yours.”<br/>
 <br/>
Six stared at him, then scoffed, pulling her hand out of his. “You have a bad way of showing it. Do you try to get all your friends killed?”</p><p>Mono clenched his jaw, and stared at the ground. He was tired, he was frustrated, he just wanted to be friends again. Why was she acting like this? What happened in the tower?</p><p>No, no no, he didn’t want to think about the tower. He didn’t want to see her like that.</p><p>He wouldn’t get mad. Not in a tunnel, not where a small shake would collapse this entire place and they would both be trapped. </p><p>Six huffed. “What, no excuse? No ‘I’m sorry’? Did you finally run out of air?” </p><p>He couldn’t stop himself. He wanted her to trust him, he thought giving her something she loved would do that, but after he watched it be ripped from his eyes, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to fix this, he didn’t know how to earn her trust again. </p><p>Maybe he never really knew how. </p><p>“Why.” He didn’t ask it. He demanded it, and the ground started to shake. </p><p>Six’s eyes widened, and she quickly got down. Mono continued to stand, concrete dust spilling all around them. “Why? Why do you hate me? What did I do?” </p><p>“I told you!” Six yelled, still staring at the ground beneath her. “Stop it!”</p><p>“It was never my fault!” he said. Was that another signal he felt? He grabbed that one too, and the ground rumbled in response. </p><p>“It… It was!” Six stuttered. “Look what you’re doing now! You’re going to get me killed! Just stop!”</p><p>“I saved you from the cabin!” he shouted. “You didn’t fight the bullies back, so I saved you from them! You didn’t hide well enough from the Thin Man, so I helped you escape the tower!” He felt another weak signal and clasped it, pulling it towards him. The concrete over their heads began bending downward, as everything rumbled in movement. “What do I have to do? Tell me what I have to do to get you to trust me!?”</p><p>“Stop it! You’re being dumb and emotional!” she shouted over the rumbling quake. “Calm down before I get crushed!”</p><p>“What do I have to do?!” he shouted, and the metal supports over their heads groaned in pain as they bended back, curving like Cs, huge chunks of cement falling off like shell off an egg, and landing in the pit. They didn’t hear them land. </p><p>“You…” Six coughed, the dust undoubtedly filling her lungs as she tried to speak. “I don’t know!” </p><p>Mono was about to respond, when Six swayed, head turning up to look at him. Her eyes glistened with tears. “I don’t know! I don’t know what you could do! Honestly, Mono! I’m just… It’s so empty, every time I want to trust you!” </p><p>She didn’t know how? </p><p>Of course she wouldn’t know how. What kind of question was he asking? It wasn’t her job to know how HE should gain her trust!</p><p> Did he really think she knew the answer? Did he honestly think there was one key present he could give her that would magically make her trust him again? He was so stupid. </p><p>He unclenched his fists. All the signal dashed way from him, lost and confused and hurt, vanishing into the emptiness. The rumbling stopped, but the dust continued to fall. Six stood, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m a monster.” She admitted. “I can’t be happy. I’ve tried, and nothing works anymore!” she stood, rubbing her arms and blinking her teary eyes at him. “Maybe I’m already a Nightmare.” </p><p>Mono shook his head. “No you’re not.”</p><p>Six sniffed. The dust finally settled. “Nightmares like to hurt us, right?” she said, staring up at the sky over them. “Mono, I think… I think… in the tower I was…”</p><p>Mono bit his bottom lip. He didn’t want to talk about the tower, no. Not again. He didn’t want to imagine her like that.</p><p>Six pressed her hands to her face, and took a couple of shaky breaths. Her legs quivered under her, and the world was silent except for her terrified breathing. He hated seeing her like this even more than like that monster.</p><p>Mono squeezed his eyes closed. They had to talk about the tower. Now, he had to know. “Was…” his voice broke. He cleared his throat quickly, and tried again. “In the tower. Was… that your worst Nightmare?”</p><p>There was a simple law of fate. Lots of kids feared slimy black leaches, lots of kids feared monsters with malformed and disgusting bodies, plenty of kids feared claws and teeth and slime, some kids feared hunters in the woods, a few kids feared doctors, a few kids feared becoming spoiled brats…</p><p>At least one kid feared the Thin Man. At least one kid’s worst Nightmares were plagued with a mysterious hallway, or a tall, gray man in a nice hat. It was his fate, like everybody else, to one day grow up to be his own worst Nightmare, or die. Death is the only escape from fate.</p><p>“No.” Six told him finally, letting her arms fall. “My Worst Nightmare is… a lady. In a red dress, somewhere. I’ve never seen her, except when I sleep. It wasn’t what I was in the tower. Yours is the Thin Man, isn’t it?” </p><p>Mono shuddered, and it took him a second to finally reply. “Yeah.”</p><p>They were quiet for a moment. Mono summed up the courage to ask, “Do you… want to talk about the Tower?”</p><p>Almost instantly, she said, “Oh no. No.” And turned to stare down the tunnel. “Promise you’ll hold the roof up until we find the Subway?”</p><p>She was changing the subject. Mono didn’t care, and grinned. “Yeah. Promise.” They started down the tunnel, and he added, “You’re not a monster, Six. I promise.”</p><p>She didn’t reply.</p><p>They traveled into the darkness. Periodically, red lights or the occasional TV screen would light up the tunnel, giving them barely enough to see with. After a half hour, they came to a collapsed pile of rubble, a lonely subway car lodged under a mass of concrete. </p><p>Unable to continue, they walked back to the well. Mono backed against the wall and shuffled around the gaping hole, jumping once on a broken concrete brick. Six followed studiously until they were on the other side of the screeching pit. </p><p>The other side was much darker, and much colder. Mono occasionally rubbed his hands together and his body spasmed with a small shiver. Emergency lights were few and very far between, and the darkness consumed all sound, the beep from the Well growing faint as they journeyed away from it. The dark was so muffling, he jumped in surprise when Six spoke. </p><p>“I’m tired.” She said. “Let’s sleep.”</p><p>“Here?” Mono asked. He thought Six maybe nodded in agreement. He couldn’t see it in the dark. Typical.</p><p>“Let’s find a light first, and sleep where it’s a little safer.” He said. </p><p>He heard Six sigh, and then her feet dragged along after him. It was a few minutes until they saw the pale, blue light of a emergency light far ahead. Mono picked up speed, walking towards it quickly, and Six treaded slowly after him. </p><p>When they reached the circle of almost-light, Six immediately sat down, putting her head in her hand, her breath appearing like a mist in front of her mouth. Mono sat across from her, tiredness gripping at his body too. What time even was it? </p><p>They both sat in silence, thinking about things and worrying if there was something lurking just outside of their small circle of safety. </p><p>Mono swayed back and forth, wrapping his coat tightly around his arms. “Will you sing?” he asked. </p><p>Six’s gaze turned to him, then quickly away again. “I don’t feel like it.” She muttered, staring into the dark. </p><p>Mono nodded, a little disappointed. “Okay. Good night, then.” He said, laying down on the pavement and silently missing the soggy couch cushion from last night. </p><p>There was a second where Six was quiet. Then, she said, “Sweet dreams.” </p><p>Mono snickered, once. “That was a bad joke.”</p><p>“Your face is a bad joke.” She replied.</p><p>Mono smiled as he began to drift off. His arms tightened as his thoughts returned to the gray Signal, trying to kidnap Six away again. It couldn’t have been him, could it? </p><p>He was Dead. He was Dead. He was Dead. Saying it three times makes it true, he comforted himself. </p><p>Finally, after a long time, he managed to drift off into sleep. </p><p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-</p><p>
  <em>Violet fog surrounded him, again. The cliff was facing the wrong way, as though he had to walk to the left to get here, not forward. Maybe that was just how he was seeing things. He was so cold. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ I Can Speak Here . “ Six’s voice said. Mono’s eyes ran along the cliff until they landed on the shadow, who sat, overlooking the sea of purple emptiness, her legs dangling over the cliff.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Who are you?” he asked. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ You Know The Answer to That . “ The shadow said. “ But Your Dream Won’t Let You Speak Your Own Words . So , Just Be Silent . “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono zipped his lips. He wanted to walk over and sit by the shadow, but he couldn’t. Something wouldn’t let him. She sounded exact-… it sounded exactly like Six, with the occasional spit or buzz of static in her speech. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ he Separated Us In the tower . “ It told him, staring over the endless waves. “ he Tried To Keep Us There , By Taking Away Everything We Had . Then , he Gave Us    One   Thing To Lose , And Told Us We Could Only Keep It If  We  Stayed. It Was . . . Ensnaring . “ </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono could hear singing. It was faint, and far over the crashing waves of purple fog, like the hum of a plane you can’t see above the clouds.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The shadow glitched in and out of it’s own words, but its voice was soft, as though it was picking each word up and laying them out gently in front of him. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ mono . “ It whispered. “ I Think .  .   . You Can Fix Us . Try To Undo his Devilish Trap . “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Did the shadow just say “devilish”? That’s not a word Six would ever say, he thought. He knew. He thought he knew. He doubted. The haze filled around him, filling the air with a thickness that made it hard to breathe. He didn’t know. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ There’s Three Steps To It. One You can do right now.” The shadow said, its voice becoming clearer for a moment. It paused, then continued, buzzing a few times before clearing up and saying, “ Just Clear Away All This   Mist. It Helps to Have A  Clear  Mind, One Without So Much Doubt , So Much grief and Guilt . “ </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“This is a dream. Not my mind.” Mono corrected. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“   be Silent    . “ The shadow said, then hiccuped. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono stared at her, unable to move. “I can’t control my Nightmares.” He said, trying to halt his mouth from speaking, but it spoke anyway. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ But You Can . “ Said the Shadow, still gazing over the emptiness. “ You Can Control Everything , When You Are Provided the Right Tools . You are like him , You Are him Next Even . He Controlled Everything . “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The Shadow stood up, and pointed along the horizon. “ I Can Feel Signals Now . There’s One , It’s Far Away . Use It To Clear Your Mind . I’ll Wait . . . “ </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What about the sea? Should I clear that too?” Mono asked, unsure of what to do. The haze was growing stifling, and it was challenging to breathe through his mask. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ Yes ! “ The Shadow said. “ Use The Signal to Lift the Sea. It Will be heavy , but it is smaller than it Looks. Once you manage that, I can show you what to do next. There’s a     Door down There . It Will Lead Us To  Your  Mind . Dreams Are But Windows To Memories . “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono took a deep breath, his lungs filling with the gaseous haze. It was suffocating. He had to get rid of it. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He lifted his hand and reached out, searching for the Signal the Shadow mentioned. He felt something, something weak. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>The shadow jolted away from the cliff. “ He’s Coming . I can Feel Him . Quickly , Please !“ The shadow yelled. Mono looked at her, and saw she had turned to him, her face featureless, but her body reading terror. “ He’s Coming. Clear the Sea , Fast ! The Confusion and Thoughts Are his Voice , Not Yours ! Lift them Up and Push them away, as far away as you Can ! Please ! “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mono’s breathing quickened. He tried to grab the signal, but it slipped away. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ Hurry ! He’ll hurt us again , He’ll Hurt Us Again , “ The Shadow wrapped a hand around her stomach and collapsed on the ground, huffing rapidly. “ Don’t   Let     Him “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sweat began to collect on Mono’s body, the mist condensing on his skin. He would protect her. He would put her together again, and then they could be friends again. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He pulled on the Signal, the sea of fog rising, higher and higher. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>From Mono’s perspective, it almost looked like the cliff was shrinking. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ Mono , Protect Us , Please . “ The Shadow said. “ I’m So Hungry Without a Body . “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He dragged the mist high, until the cliff was level with it. He paused, trying to breathe, as he held the cliff and the fog at the same height. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He heard him before he saw him. He saw him before he realized who he was. He realized who he was before he dropped the cliff and they sprang up towards the sky. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He glitched onto the cliff and stood over Mono and Six’s shadow, leering down at them silently. His face featureless, as static buzzed around his head like hairy, black flies.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The Nightmare didn’t allow Mono to move. If he could, he would’ve ran, and ran, and ran into the mist until his feet were bloody and his heart ruptured in two. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“ I Never Really thought My Predecessor Would Be So , Very , Stupid . “ Six’s Shadow told him. </em>
</p><p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-</p><p>He awoke with a scream. Across from him, Six was instantly at her feet, staring at him with wide, shaken eyes. “What?” she asked.</p><p>Mono bent his knees to his chest and hugged his legs. His face was already wet with tears, and they just kept coming down. How was he supposed to know? Only other children could be glitched remains before this, how was he supposed to know? </p><p>“Quit being a crybaby and tell me if there’s a monster somewhere!” Six demanded. </p><p>Mono sniffed, loudly. She’d leave if he told her, he realized. She’d call him an idiot and run away, to escape him. </p><p>He wiped his nose. “Just a Nightmare.” He muttered quickly, staring up at her. “You can go back to sleep.”</p><p>Six slumped. “Don’t do that again.” She told him, before lying back down and tucking her hands under her head. It was quiet once again. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>All right, sorry if this chapter confused you! There's a lot of popular theories out there for LN2 that I've seen, like the time loop, but I always had a problem with them. What I actually think the end of the second game is trying to say is that, when kids in the world of Little Nightmares grow up, they turn into their own Nightmares, or they die. Mono becomes his worst Nightmare, the Thin Man, who we see at the end of the second game. Six takes the Lady's powers at the end of the first game. The Runaway Kid dies before he can grow up to become the next Granny or possibly Ferryman. We aren't shown the Raincoat Girl's worst Nightmare, only a vision of her future death. I just think that message hits more than the time loop theory, and it also seems more realistic to what the writers were trying to convey at the end of the game. Anyway, if you want to discuss theories, please consider sending me an ask on Tumblr, I'm @Xeiniex, or leaving a comment with your own thoughts! I know my theory has some flaws, and I love to hear other people's! Also leave Kudos if you enjoyed the chapter, and have a good day!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Wait a minute... what?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>(Heads up, a few references and a little swearing in this chapter! Enjoy!)</p><p>When Mono woke up again, something was very, very wrong. </p><p>He wasn't asleep on the floor of a subway any longer, he was in a bed! And not only that, the bed was... so small! He laid in it comfortably, with a blanket and pillows and everything, and it was as long as he was tall. And very comfortable. </p><p>There was a knock on the door, and he leapt to his feet, searching the room for some kind of hiding place. Without worry, he shot under the desk and stared at the tiny bedroom door. Was this a doll house or something? </p><p>"Good morning, Son." a weird voice said. Mono shrunk against the desk. Something very strange was going on. The door opened, and Mono froze in absolute terror as the Thin Man poked his head in. He wasn't wearing a hat, but Mono recognized his wrinkly face immediately. He looked around the room and finally his eyes landed on Mono cowering under the desk. He smiled.</p><p>Mono's heart felt like it would erupt out of his chest. </p><p>"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I see. It's time to get up and get ready for your first day of school, what kind of jam would you like on your toast, Mono?" The Thin Man chuckled humorously. </p><p>Mono blinked a few times. Son? School? Jam? </p><p>He suddenly realized what was going on, and his heart nearly stopped with horror. </p><p>He was trapped in a dream where he was a normal shy kid that lived in England with his single father and no friends! Stuck in a boring, family-friendly Netflix Original Series!</p><p>His worst Nightmare yet. The tower was nothing compared to this. </p><p>He cleared his throat. If he just played along, he would escape this horrible dream soon enough. "Uh, raspberry?" he barely whispered. </p><p>The Thin Man nodded. "Alright, put on your uniform and come on down." he said, kindly closing the door behind him as he left the room. </p><p>Fear gripped Mono as he fished the pieces of his school uniform out of the laundry basket. It was exactly the same outfit all the bullies wore, wasn't it? it felt like burlap, and he'd have to wear it all day while listening to mean teachers drone on and on about boring things he didn't care about. Then he'd eat lunch alone and walk home by himself, do his homework, play some videogames, and go to bed. He was totally average in every way.</p><p>Dread filled him. If this was a Netflix Original Series, that could only mean one thing...</p><p>His phone buzzed and he nearly hit his head on the wall jumping backwards in fright. </p><p>It couldn't be...</p><p>He picked it up, and saw there was a new text. From SIX. </p><p>He shook his head in horror. No, not Six. They couldn't do this to her. Him, he was fine, but not Six. He couldn't bear to see her be put through anything more awful than what she already has. </p><p>He got another message, this time from someone called "Raincoat Girl" in his contacts. He had no idea who that was, so he ignored it and quickly read what Six's message said, his body filling with frigid cold liquid as he did so. </p><p>"Don't forget the tape! The teacher's gonna be so pissed after we pull this prank off. Also, wanna hang out at the Library after school?" it said. His eyes widened in horror. It couldn't be! The level of romantic tension in those words was unbearable! How could the Netflix Producers allow this?</p><p>His arms began to shake in fear, when he clicked back to his messages, and read the one from "Raincoat Girl". It said, </p><p>"Hey Mono! You forgot we had study group last night. I missed you! D,: " </p><p>Who even was this, he wondered, fear clouding his mind. </p><p>Then, his heart nearly stopped when he realized something. No, it couldn't possibly be! Not that, anything but that!</p><p>He knew exactly what it was. </p><p>He was caught in a Love Triangle. </p><p>His world shattered at that realization, and his phone slipped out of his hand and landed on the carpet. How would he ever escape? The writers of this show won't let him be alone unless he picks one of them or turns gay. He didn't want to do either! He was nine, for Pete's sake!</p><p>Or was he?</p><p>No.... "No!" he muttered, throwing open the door and running downstairs. </p><p>The Thin Man sat at the table reading a Newspaper. The table was covered in breakfast foods, toast, eggs, even some soup, but Mono didn't care as he demanded, "How old am I?"</p><p>The man put the paper down, and smiled at him. "You didn't think I forgot, did you son?" he patted the chair next to him. "Happy sixteenth birthday." </p><p>Mono's entire body tensed. "No... no no no..." he whispered under his breath, frozen in terror. </p><p>The aged him up. He missed five years of his life so Netflix producers could put him in a Love Triangle.  </p><p>He almost barfed. This was horrible. </p><p>He shook his head, instead saying, "I'm late for something, gotta go." He didn't know why he said that. There was more food on that table than he had seen in his entire life, why wasn't he feasting when he had the chance? </p><p>Instead, he grabbed a backpack off the floor and rushed outside. </p><p>EVERYTHING WAS SO BRIGHT HOLY-</p><p>He pressed his hands into his eyes. The sun was light a ball of light, no cloud cover, no pollution, nothing. It hurt his eyes, and he turned from it. </p><p>Something loud rumbled along the road, and he jumped into the bushes to hide. His eyes nothing more than little slits from the brightness, he watched as a truck drove passed his home. it was so clean, and colorful. Everything looked so clean and boring. </p><p>"What're you doing in there?" Six's voice asked, and he turned away from the road to see her standing beside him. </p><p>She wasn't wearing her coat, instead she was clad in a uniform like his. Her hair was just as messy, and her expression just the same. Thankfully. </p><p>He stepped out of the bushes and said, "Hiding. Thought the truck was a monster."</p><p>She raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh-huh." she said, rolling on her heel and walking down the sidewalk. He followed, gulping in horror. </p><p>"I totally skipped on that history assignment." she told him. "But I don't really care, you know? School's stupid anyway." </p><p>The tension made Mono feel sick. This was so horrible. He got another text, and quickly pulled out his phone. It was Raincoat Girl again, this time she said, "Was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance w/ me tonight?"</p><p>Six was looking over his shoulder. "Ew! Seriously, her? Over me? How could you!" </p><p>Mono put his hands up in defense. That went from zero to one hundred in an instant. He hadn't even responded. </p><p>Six scoffed at him and crossed her arms. "I knew you changed after I got back from juvie." she said.</p><p>"You were in prison?!?" he yelled, absolutely bewildered.</p><p>"Ya, all summer, idiot." she said. "And it was you who got me in there in the first place!"</p><p>"I... wait what?" he said. Where had this all come from? Then, he remembered. Netflix original Series. They weren't being edgy enough yet.</p><p>"Yeah, I got out, my parents both died from cancer in a car accident, and so you ran off to go smoke weed with some random girl from out of town!" she stomped her foot. "And I have a crush on Raincoat Girl too! How could you steal her from me?!" she was crying now, and ran away from him down the road. </p><p>Mono was so confused. This was hell.</p><p>Every day, he would wake up to the same stupid drama. There was no more running, no more monsters. Just the same infinite time loop of melodramatic teenage sitcom. It was worse than any time loop he could ever be trapped in, yes siree, no question about it. The very worst of them all. Yep. </p><p>He closed his eyes. He needed to escape this awful place, as fast as possible. He needed to wake up. </p><p>He reached for his arm, and pinched his elbow painfully. </p><p>-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-</p><p>His eyelids flew open as he sat up and glanced around. </p><p>Abandoned Subway. Six was laying on the floor about a foot away from him. Paper bag on head. </p><p>He breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he managed to escape that awful Nightmare dimension. Hopefully he would never have that horrible dream again. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Happy April Fools Day! Little bit of context: I heard a rumor of LN getting a Netflix series and my instant thought was "Hm. How would they do it wrong?" Voila, this curséd monstrosity was created.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Wait a minute... yeah that's right.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He didn’t get any more sleep that night. That one really, really weird dream he completely and totally forgot only a few minutes later, thankfully, so it had absolutely no impact on his character or the story. The other dream, though, stuck with him. He tried to sleep some more, but the ground was too cold, and the shadows were too dark, and every time he closed his eyes, he saw the glitched remains of the Thin Man. Instead he sat, trying to keep his teeth from clattering. </p>
<p>He was sitting up with his back to her when Six gasped awake. He twisted around to her, already knowing she plagued with her own nightmares. She was just as haunted by that woman in a red dress as he was with the Thin Man. </p>
<p>She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and turning back to him sleepily. He stood, saying, “Let’s keep going.” And gestured for her to follow. </p>
<p>She followed without a word, too tired to ask questions, as they journeyed into the dark tunnel. </p>
<p>The occasional blue light or TV screen did very little to make the darkness feel less oppressive. Mono was worried every step he took where he didn’t know he was going, the Thin man would be standing just within the shadows. It was a silly thing to feel—after all, he should’ve been much more worried about him crawling out of every abandoned television set the passed, that was way more likely. </p>
<p>After traveling for a very long time, he spotted a yellow light far down the tunnel. It was a more cheerful shade than the glowering magenta and pale blue emergency lights, and that made him feel a little excited. Finally, something that looked warm and inviting. </p>
<p>As they got closer, the glow flicked a few times. It poured out of the windows of an abandoned train that stretched down the tracks and into more endless darkness. </p>
<p>Six passed him, and he jumped back in surprise when he saw her. She glanced back at him, eyebrows raised, eyes rolling, before turning back to the train. </p>
<p>Mono shook his head. He needed to calm down, there was no reason to be so jumpy. Yet. </p>
<p>Maybe the dream was meaningless, he tried to assure himself. He was just overreacting, like a dummy. </p>
<p>Six climbed onto the platform, walking up to the door and Grabbing onto the bottom, as though that would slide it open. Mono heaved himself up and walked over, a shiver running down his spine as a wave of deja-vu washed over him. This was a different train, of course, but that couldn’t shake the sudden memory of pain in the back of his head. </p>
<p>He grabbed the door too, and they both pushed it to the side. It scrapped along the floor like a rusted shovel scrapes concrete as a line of yellow light grew bigger behind them. </p>
<p>Finally, it was open wide enough, and Six had to turn her body to walk inside. Mono followed her in.</p>
<p>He would say it was in better condition than the trains he was in earlier, but all he really remembered from those train was a feeling of terror, and a few rushes of air as he ducked under things and climbed over things in his haste to get out. Maybe those “things” were chairs and luggage, but he couldn’t remember exactly. </p>
<p>This train certainly had chairs and luggage. Six immediately jumped onto one of the benches, bouncing up and down on the red cushion. “We should’ve slept here.” She said. </p>
<p>Mono blinked up at her, the blurriness clearing from his eyes for a moment. He frowned, not that she could see it under his mask. He muttered, “You said you wanted to sleep—” <br/> <br/>“Yeah well, next time tell me we should keep going until we find more comfortable beds. Sheesh.” Six told him, hopping down.</p>
<p>Mono was about to ask how it was his fault for letting her sleep when she wanted to, but he decided not to mention it. “Is there any food up there?” he asked sheepishly. </p>
<p>Six glanced down the bench to a huge pile of luggage that blocked the way. “Not on this side.” She told him, hopping back down.  </p>
<p>Mono was about to say something, but Six had already run around to the other side of the pile of bags and glanced around. Mono watched as something caught her eye, and she knelt down to pick it up, then smiled over at him. At first, he was glad to see her smiling, but then realized it wasn’t the kind of smile he wanted to see. It was the kind that was about to make fun of him. </p>
<p>“Care for a delicious, totally-a-mint candy?” she said, holding out a small red-and-white striped disk. “Found it between the cushions!”</p>
<p>Mono shook his head. “No thanks. Trust me.” What Six was holding was actually a piece of rat poison, which they both recognized instantly. A lot of poison was designed to look like candy, and was easy to find in cushions and in vents sometimes. </p>
<p>Six dropped the “mint” her smile disappearing again as she jumped off the bench.</p>
<p>Mono glanced down the train. “I think this one is stopped at a station, if we can find a door there will probably be stairs that lead up to the city again.” Right as the words left his mouth, he stared at Six to see her reaction, to see how she’d respond. </p>
<p>She only nodded. No okay. No “don’t follow me”. Just a nod. </p>
<p>He had no idea what that meant, if it meant she would leave the second they got up there, if she was planning to stay. He didn’t want to ask, either, in case it would make her more determined in leaving. </p>
<p>They walked along the car to the door at the end, which was thankfully already wide open, and walked into the next car, which was much darker than the first one. The single, dim light flickered a few times as the climbed over some fallen suitcases and walked up to the next door. Mono squeezed through the doorway onto the passage between cars, when the entire train began to shake. </p>
<p>Immediately, Mono fell to the floor on one hand, silently hoping it was just a small one, and they wouldn’t be crushed by the concrete tunnel. </p>
<p>The door beeped. He looked up at it, and noticed a red light had blinked on above the doorframe. That usually didn’t mean something good.</p>
<p>Panicking, he quickly stood and stumbled back to it, squeezing through to be on the other side with Six again. She was under one of the seats, staring out at him, and he slid under with her, unsure if there might be a Monster coming to investigate that beeping sound. </p>
<p>The door beeped again, and Mono held his breath. The shaking continued, when a strange chugging sound filled the car. The lights blinked a few times, and Mono could feel his insides being pulled back as the train started moving forward. </p>
<p>It was a automatic subway, he figured. Moving on it’s own, operated by clockwork. Going on time no matter the number of quakes that rattled the city. </p>
<p>Six peaked her head out first, as Mono continued to stay as stable as he could on the gross floor under the bench. Finally, she crawled out and stood up, staring up at something. </p>
<p>If she was safe, Mono decided, it was probably safe to crawl out and stand with her. He did, his hand squishing into something stick as he did so. Outside the window, the occasional blue light passed them as the train shot forward through the empty tunnel. </p>
<p>
  <em>Bang!</em>
</p>
<p>Mono dove back under the bench, his heart racing, as his thoughts went to the Thin Man suddenly appearing behind them.</p>
<p>Back in the aisle, Six was laughing. She leaned over, her hair falling over her eyes, and smirked at him. “What are you so scared of? A suitcase fell off the shelf over there.”</p>
<p>Mono pressed his sticky hand into his chest, feeling his heart pounding rapidly. “Sorry.” He said, crawling back out from under the bench and glancing to where she pointed.</p>
<p>A leather suitcase had fallen off a shelf overhead, and landed with a thud on the seats beneath. Sitting on one of seats beside it was a very nice suit, long abandoned by the person that was sitting in it. In their lap was a very familiar hat. Mono’s breath quickened as he stared at the hat and the suit and the suitcase.</p>
<p>He heard a small noise and his head turned left and right to see where it was coming from. Thankfully, it was just Six, climbing back onto the bench. She sat, her feet kicking at the empty air under her, stacks of bags and briefcases on either side of her. </p>
<p>Mono blinked up at her, when the train bumped over something and he fell to the floor again. </p>
<p>Standing back up quickly, he ran over and grabbed the edge of the seat, pulling himself up to sit beside her and not risk falling once again. They sat, the only sound Mono could hear was his own heartbeat and the chugging of the subway. </p>
<p>His thoughts filled his mind, worries about his dream and it’s obviously prophetic meaning, worries about where this train was taking them, worries about Six and what she would do once they got to where they were going. Worries about Shadow Six.</p>
<p>In his dream, she was an illusion made by the Thin Man. Was that what she was in real life too? When she was trying to communicate with him earlier, was it just a trick, to get him to free the Thin Man like he had in his dream? Maybe she WAS the Thin Man??</p>
<p>Or he was paranoid, he told himself. Shadow Six was just glitched remnants of when Six was… in the Tower’s control, he told himself in words that didn’t remind him. The shadow was just an after-effect, like radiation after a nuclear bomb. All the other shadows were the same things, not missing parts of anybody, just final memories, trapped in hiding or dancing or crying or, in Six’s case, stealing things and climbing things. </p>
<p>Which, know that he thought about it, was exactly what he would expect Six to be doing. It was totally normal that her glitched remains were running around like they were, because Six was always running around, doing things, climbing things, jumping on things. The shadow was nothing but a lost signal, just a lost signal. </p>
<p>Mono curled his knees to his chest. Of course, if the shadow was a missing part of Six, then that would mean all the other remains were just missing parts of children too. When he absorbed them, he was actually taking the last memories of their lives, portions of their missing souls, taking away their final breath.</p>
<p>His eyes widened. No, it couldn’t be that. They were mindless. Lost signals. Not children, not like him. They were not like him. </p>
<p>He wasn’t evil.</p>
<p>His eyes darted back to the vacant suit and hat sitting on the bench across from them. See? It wasn’t even the right hat! The Thin Man’s hat was flatter, right? And a different color. He wasn’t anything like him. </p>
<p> “Are you going to tell me about your Nightmare, or are you just gonna jump around like a scared cat forever now?” Six asked.</p>
<p>It took him a moment to look away from the hat. His gaze lifted, trying to catch the sporadic blue lights that shot passed them through the tunnel. He debated with himself.</p>
<p>If he told her what he did, there was a huge chance she would call him an idiot for waking the Thin Man back up, and then she’d run away and he’d never see her again. If he lied to her, there was still a huge chance she would run away and he’d never see her again, but at least she wouldn’t call him an idiot first. </p>
<p>He opened his mouth, then closed it again, jolting a little as the train bumped on something. </p>
<p>Finally, he said, “The Thin Man.” </p>
<p>Six was quiet for a bit. “You told me he was dead. You’re still scared of him?” </p>
<p>Mono bit his bottom lip and stared at the floor. “I… in my dream, he… tricked me.” He told her, turning to her. “You know the shadow kids, right?”</p>
<p>Six nodded once. “The ones you keep eating, yeah.” </p>
<p>Mono felt a pang of guilt when she said “eating” and he returned his gaze to the floor, shivering. </p>
<p>She rolled her eyes. “It was a joke, stupid.” She whispered. </p>
<p>“Don’t…” <em>call me that</em>, he almost said. He took a deep breath instead.</p>
<p>“I saw… his shadow. I guess. He was a shadow, even as a grown-up.” Mono told her, rubbing his arms.</p>
<p>Six stared forward, through the window across from them. It had been dark for a while, when a pale blue light shot by once again, then returned to darkness. “Huh.” She said finally, with half of a shrug. “Probably nothing.”</p>
<p>It was only two words, but as she said them, they felt like boulders rolling off a hill. Like they’d been sitting there for years, growing tenser and tenser, hundreds of pounds of mud and ice and other boulders leaning against them with every waking thought that shot through Mono’s brain, and they finally just… rolled away. So much stress and anxiety falling like a landslide off Mono’s body.</p>
<p>“You think so?” he asked.</p>
<p>“I mean…” Six shrugged, and went quiet. Finally, she said, “It’s probably nothing. The shadows have never hurt you before, right? I mean, the ones you’ve shown me don’t even move. So if he is one, you can just absorb him with your weird TV powers.” </p>
<p>Mono blinked. Six was always blunt, even before she changed in the tower, and it always took him a little off guard. Absorb the Thin Man’s shadow, though? </p>
<p>The more he thought about it, the less he liked it. Shadows were lost Signals of kids, did Monsters even have Signals?</p>
<p>The gray one that grabbed at Six was definitely not a kid. His thoughts basically slapped him in the face when he remembered that one. </p>
<p>Although he had a lot to think about, his entire body was overcome with a wave of exhaustion. It was hard to keep his eyes open after a while, and on two occasions he almost fell over on Six from the tiredness. He felt as though, for the first time in a long time, he might actually have a decent rest, if he fell asleep right now. Multiple times he shook his head to stay awake, and finally he asked Six, “Want to play I spy?”</p>
<p>She didn’t reply, so Mono decided he would start. “I spy…” he yawned. He didn’t mean to, and tried again. “I spy something…” his eyes darted around, and landed once on the hat before quickly glancing away. “Something yellow.”</p>
<p>“Me.” Six said. </p>
<p>“No.” Mono told her.</p>
<p>“My raincoat.” Six said. </p>
<p>“That’s... the same thing.” Mono said, blinking to keep his eyes wide open.</p>
<p>“My hood.” Six said.</p>
<p>“Also the same thing.” He told her.</p>
<p>“I give up.” She said, barely glancing around the rest of the car. “My turn. I spy something invisible.” </p>
<p>Seriously? Not even a guess? Mono sighed. “Is it the window?”</p>
<p>“No, the window’s transparent. This thing is invisible.” Six told him. </p>
<p>Mono looked around the car. What else could be considered invisible?</p>
<p> Then he heard Six snort. “Did you seriously fall for that?”</p>
<p>Mono blinked. “Fall for what?”</p>
<p>“Mono.” She turned to him, brushing the hair out of her eyes. The “making fun of you” smile was plastered on her face. He didn’t like that smile at all. “I Spy Something <em>invisible</em>. Tell me what’s wrong with that sentence.” </p>
<p>Mono stared at her. Her eyes still didn’t look right. They weren’t wide and watery and full of thoughts, like he knew them to be. They were narrow, like she was eying him up for a fight. “I uh…” he tried to explain himself, but he just didn’t get the joke.</p>
<p>Six sighed and shook her head. “Wow. Just… never mind, I spy something gray.” She said.</p>
<p>The way she just switched gears like that, without even explaining the joke, made Mono feel really stupid. He ignored the feeling, and instead looked around for what could be gray.</p>
<p>The game lasted about a dozen rounds when a hushed screech began to play as the Subway started slowing down. The next automated stop was coming up, he figured, as he grabbed the edge of the seat to keep from flying forward. </p>
<p>He didn’t want to ask if she was going or not. He didn’t want to know for sure yet. He didn’t want to lose his only friend. </p>
<p>She was sick, right? Maybe they could find a way to make her better! Together. Yeah, together. </p>
<p>He took a deep breath. The train came to a complete stop, and the beep rang out again as the red light over the door turned on. </p>
<p>Finally, he mustered up the courage to force the words out of his mouth. “Six, I want to help you get better. If we stick together, may-”</p>
<p>She had jumped off the bench and began to run in the opposite direction of the door. Mono recognized that run immediately, and jumped down as well, shooting off after her without a second thought. He barely glanced over his shoulder to see what they were running from, and all his muscles felt like they were working under a foot of ice. </p>
<p>His eyes widened and tears immediately began to fill them. No, he was dead<br/>He was dead<br/>Dead<br/>He was dead, dead, dead, dead…<br/>Killed, gone, evaporated.<br/>Was this a dream? Was he dreaming? Was he asleep? He had to be<br/>Had to be asleep.<br/>Fell asleep. On the train, he was sleeping on Six right now, on accident. <br/>He was dead. Dead.<br/>Dead.</p>
<p>He turned away again and ran faster than his legs could go, while through the window of the train, the buzzing shadow of the Thin Man stood in the station, one hand stretched out at them.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Friday update, because technically yesterday didn't count (that chapter is canon tho). You all rule so much, by the way. Thanks for the support, I've never gotten this much attention on a fic in my entire life, so this is seriously awesome. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! please leave a comment, I always appreciate them! Thanks, have a great day.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The Beach, 7AM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Squeezing past the door to the next car felt like the longest moment of Mono’s life. It didn’t help that, as he tried to shift around, he was shaking so much his hands couldn’t hold the sides of the door. Finally, he pulled himself onto the other side, falling to the floor for only a second before shakily getting to his feet and glancing around the much more brightly lit caboose. </p>
<p>A yellow flash climbed over a briefcase and hid between it and the wall under one of the seats. His footsteps barely able to hold him as he ran, he scrambled down the aisle to where she was and quickly crawled over, pressing his back into the wall beside her. </p>
<p>Her eyes shot to him, like two beams of white-hot metal. However, as he knelt behind the suitcase, one hand tight against his chest, he didn’t care at all about the raging fire he was sitting under. </p>
<p>They both heard the door open. Slowly, her face turned back to the aisle. </p>
<p>Mono was too terrified to wonder if the suitcase was big enough to actually hide them. He was too terrified to do much of anything. </p>
<p>He did notice the smell of pipe smoke. In his mind, the smell was diseased, reminding him of rats, rotten food, and couches that, a long time ago, might have been white. It was a different kind of diseased smell than the rain brought—the smell of rain was muddy and garbage-y, like a landfill. The smell of pipe smoke was more like the smell of death. </p>
<p>The light flickered, and he felt every hair on his body stand up from the static signals buzzing through the air. </p>
<p>Footsteps treaded along the thick carpet between the seats. Mono held his breath as a pair of shoes strutted past them. It was hard to tell where the shoes ended and the pants started, as the legs glitched back one step every two steps forward. The flooding din of static filled the car, like pouring rain on a tin roof. </p>
<p>There was a small crash of glass breaking, and the light overhead blinked out, casting the car into near darkness, save for the blue square from the station lights outside. Mono could still hear the footsteps and the pounding static as it slowly moved down the car, away from them. </p>
<p>The door to the end of the car opened. </p>
<p>After a minute, it closed. </p>
<p>Both kids stayed very still between the wall and the briefcase. Finally, Six grabbed the edge of the suitcase and pulled herself over into the aisle. Mono followed suit wordlessly, bare feet hitting the soft carpet, as they ran back the way they came.</p>
<p>They dashed quietly through the wide-open door and down the next car, scrambling over luggage as they ran. The door that beeped at them earlier was also wide open, and neither of them thought twice before running through. </p>
<p>In the third car, there was a set of sliding doors open to the station. Dim fluorescents back lit red-wash pillars, which studiously held a barren ceiling high above a trash-decorated concrete floor. Mono felt a wave of frosty air blow through the doors and wash over him. </p>
<p>Six walked up, sticking her head through the doorway and glancing left and right, before bolting across the station. Mono blinked and ran to keep up with her.</p>
<p>The moment his feet hit the floor, a shiver crawled up his back, but he forced it down and ran after Six as she barreled to the cement stairs at the other end of the station. </p>
<p>There was an upbreeze that flowed down the steps, and Mono grabbed his mask to keep it from blowing off his head. That moment, he felt another shiver shoot up his spine. He couldn’t tell if it was from the cold, or from one of the hundreds of buzzing signals shooting through the air, like giant wasps, making him more anxious the closer they got. He ran a little faster, and by proxy, a little more loudly, his footsteps “plep-plep-plep”-ing as he went up the staircase. </p>
<p>The sky was stormy dark as Mono walked onto the shattered sidewalk. To his left, waves of the lake lapped at the beach, and a single colorful TV screen sang it’s horrible hymn. To his right, the walls and towers of the Pale City loomed dangerously forward, threatening to topple at any second. Ahead of him, Six had slowed to a walk. He caught up with her quickly, rubbing his arms to quench the frigid feeling. </p>
<p>She glanced at him. He couldn’t see her eyes under her hood, but her mouth frowned at him. She turned away quickly, picking up the pace as she hiked ahead of him. </p>
<p>Mono gulped. She was leaving. She was really leaving. Desperation quickly clutched his heart as he reached out to her and called, “Six! Wait, please wait!”</p>
<p>She kept walking. He followed.</p>
<p>Mono shook his head. They couldn’t end like this. He couldn’t lose her, not when she was still sick and it was still his fault. He couldn’t be alone again, not yet. </p>
<p>An explosive shiver tightened around his back, making his entire body shudder at once. It vanished as soon as it came. “Six!” he yelled.</p>
<p>She stopped, but didn’t look at him. </p>
<p>He stopped too, a few sidewalk squares behind her. </p>
<p>The waves of the ocean were deafening. Her voice still managed to be louder, despite it sounding like barely a whisper in Mono’s ears. “Don’t. Follow. Me.” </p>
<p>Each word was a threat, hundreds of pounds of anger packed behind them. Mono shivered again, but he tried to keep his voice steady. </p>
<p>“Please…” <em>don’t go</em>, he barely whispered, the ghostly words lost on his tongue. </p>
<p>He needed to be reasonable. He inhaled a lungful of the frozen air. “Why are you leaving?”</p>
<p>She clenched her fists at her side, but didn’t look at him. “I…” she shook her head, then. “You brought him back.”</p>
<p>Mono inhaled again. The air was freezing his nose, but he tried not to itch at it. </p>
<p>“You brought him the first time, too.” She said, her back to him. “He follows you. Nightmares follow you. Nowhere you take me is ever safe.” Her words were getting faster. “Did you know you got me captured by the Hunter, too? I saw you in a tree, and you distracted me when I was running. Then, the bullies. Then, the Thin Man! Now, here he is again,” she whirled around, jabbing a finger at the station steps. “Hunting <em>you</em>, screwing around in <em>your</em> dreams, talking to <em>you</em>, threatening <em>you</em>. I’m innocent here!” she gestured to herself. “I’m not the one he wants! I never was! You let him free, and he came after <em>me</em>. I’m sick of you putting me in danger, I’m sick of your stupidity making you trust him not once, but <em>twice</em>!” she was shouting now. “Like, are you kidding me? How? What were you thinking? What was running through that empty skull of yours? Why would you trust him?!”</p>
<p>Mono knew he could explain this. The Thin Man tricked him, he made him think he should trust Six’s shadow. He should’ve known better. Shadows weren’t anything, he already knew that. He was so stupid. He shivered again. </p>
<p>Six glared at him through her bangs. “I hate you.” She said, poisonously. “And I hate him. And I hate this stupid city, and I hated that stupid cabin, I hate the monsters, I hate lake, I hate the sky, I hate… this stupid, cold sidewalk. I hate this stupid yellow coat!” she started unbuttoning her coat. “I hate how ugly it looks, I hate how bright it is. I hate my stupid hair, it’s always getting in my eyes. I hate my stupid, awful, ugly eyes!” she threw her coat on the sidewalk and stomped on it like it was a insect. Tears were beginning to stream down her face, leaving her eyes puffy and hot. “I hate the entire world! I hate having to run and hide all the time, I hate that all the food tastes bad, I hate that I have to sleep on the cold ground. I hate…” she was breathing heavily. Her brown dress was wrinkled from being under her coat. “I…” she muttered, before sniffing loudly. Her arm reached around her stomach.</p>
<p>It grumbled. </p>
<p>Mono stared. She curled around herself, half sobbing, half cringing in hunger. He shuddered, and noticed movement overhead. </p>
<p>Glancing up, he watched as small gray-white flakes gently fell from the sky. The wind blew them up, and around, and down again, where they landed on the brown sand. Some of them melted.</p>
<p>Sand. Snow. Concrete. Dirt. No bread, meat, chips, cheese, anything she could eat. She would starve. </p>
<p><em>Okay then</em>, he thought. <em>Let her starve</em>. </p>
<p>
  <em>She hates you, why should you care if she starves and freezes out here? She’s done nothing but get herself in trouble since you met her. She called you stupid, she called you idiot. She mocks you, she never said thank you. Why help her now?</em>
</p>
<p>He didn’t know what to say, how to respond. Why was he so attached to her, anymore? What had she ever done to deserve his affection? </p>
<p>He tried to remember her before, her wide eyes, her curiosity, her adventure and boldness. That was before. This is now. </p>
<p><em>She’s different. Hateful, angry, annoying.</em> Another shiver exploded across his body, and his teeth began to click together. He clenched his jaw closed. His emotions were as frozen as the sky, each new thought that ran through his head only made him more disdainful. It was a new feeling to him.</p>
<p> Emptiness. </p>
<p>If she wanted him gone, then here he was. Leaving, letting her be on her own. Maybe she’d starve, maybe she’d freeze. He was too angry to care.</p>
<p>He opened his mouth. He closed it again, realizing it would hurt her more if he didn’t reply at all. If he acted like he didn’t even mind that she was in pain. He turned, instead, and began to walk away, leaving her on the sidewalk, crumpled up like a tin wrapper, her stomach getting louder and louder. <em>If she wanted him to leave her alone so badly, he would. He’d never see her again. He’d walk away, he’d go back into the city, he’d never even think of her for the rest of his life. He’d grow up, become the next Thin Man, and he’d still never think…</em></p>
<p>Wait… </p>
<p>He didn’t want to become the next Thin Man. </p>
<p>His eyes widened. His hands flew to his forehead, and realization crashed over him like the wall of a falling skyscraper. “Get out.” He said. </p>
<p><em>No</em>. The voice replied. </p>
<p>Mono twisted back around and ran to Six. She had got back to her feet, but was barely standing. He grabbed her arm and began to tug her towards the city. He scooped her coat off the ground, and wrapped it around her. They needed to leave, right now. </p>
<p>
  <em>There’s no point, she’ll just try to leave again anyway. Abandon her.</em>
</p>
<p>“Shut up.” Mono growled at the thought that wasn’t his. How long had His voice been in his head? </p>
<p>
  <em>Oh, not long. Only since your first little dream on the cliff. You remember that little shadow-girl, don’t you? Mono’s voice spoke down to him in his mind, his own tone treating him like a child. Not that the rest was hard. It’s disgusting, how much you loathe yourself. Yet, there’s a certain, gleeful charm in watching you bully your own mind. I did nothing but encourage. </em>
</p>
<p>Mono inhaled shakily. He could ignore this. </p>
<p>He tugged Six towards the City, the snow falling softly around them, and Six’s stomach grumbling loudly. </p>
<p>A low tremor ripped across the ground. Mono glanced up at the precarious towers. </p>
<p>A massive, ear-shattering snap rolled away from them, and one of the towers began leaning much more quickly, and the ground began to shake violently. </p>
<p>Mono twisted and bolted down the sidewalk, Six stumbling behind him in his hand, as the concrete of the building groaned in agony as it fell forward onto the beach, landing with a crash in the sand, covering the entrance to the subway station in debris. The shaking forced him to run as slowly as possible, and Six cramping up didn’t help, as the rest of the towers began snapping and looming over them.</p>
<p>He pulled her arm, trying to force her back up as the buildings descended. </p>
<p>Leave her.</p>
<p>No. Never. </p>
<p>The air was freezing cold. He could barely stand, much less run on the now-damp ground. He needed to get to safety. </p>
<p>Acting fast, he grabbed under Six’s arms and picked her up, running as fast as he could, one arm under her legs and the other on her back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, probably unintentionally, as his lungs filled with freezing air and they dashed from the row of towers as they collapsed with an explosion of concrete and screaming metal beams.</p>
<p>He turned, running to the water’s edge and as far from the buildings as he could get, before finally letting Six down and getting to ground to wait the quake out. </p>
<p>He realized, in that moment sitting, how light Six was. Mono knew he was strong, but Six felt even lighter than any ax, hammer, wrench, or branch he’d ever lifted. He could carry her for <em>miles</em> if he had to.</p>
<p>He huffed. If she was so light, why was she the one to throw <em>him</em> up and over things? He could throw her probably twice as high! </p>
<p>Probably because she’d rather you died to some unseeable monster than she-</p>
<p>Mono shook his head and squeezed his eyes closed. Go away, go away, get out. “Leave me alone.” He begged, his voice imperceptible over the thunderous crashing of toppling towers. </p>
<p>Billowing sand surged up Mono’s nose, and his ears hurt from the awful noise. He sneezed and kept his eyes as tight as possible. </p>
<p> The shaking came to a very abrupt halt. It didn’t slow and ease out, like it had other times. This time, it felt like something was grabbing the foundation, keeping it steady. And it wasn’t him. </p>
<p>Open your eyes. </p>
<p>He knew it was him. He was holding the city still, mocking him with how suddenly safe everything felt. Mono knew it wasn’t safe. It was cold, and dangerous, and uncomfortable as the sand rolled under his shirt and the snow melted into frigid water on the tops of his feet. Silence fell over the beach, save for the quiet snow falling. </p>
<p>The words broke through the air in the loudest whisper Mono ever heard. “<em>Hey, Six. If you’re hungry, I found some food for you</em>.” His voice said, even though his mouth never opened to say it. “<em>I’ll even show you how to eat them!</em>”</p>
<p>Terror gripped his chest as Mono’s eyes flew open. It was hard to tell what was dust and what was snow as it lilted down to the ground in front of him. However, it was very easy to tell which were Six (she was bright yellow) and which were the hundreds of shadow children standing around them.</p>
<p>He flipped over, crawling backwards towards the lapping waves of the lake, but they didn’t chase him. Some of them just stared, their featureless faces tilting one way or the other. Others waved, then put their hands down, then waved, then put their hands down. One twirled around, like a ballerina, but never stopped spinning. She’d slow, then pick up speed again, over and over, maybe trapped. Or maybe, she just loved to spin. </p>
<p>All of them glitched left and right, black specks buzzing around them as they dissolved then reanimated. Towering in the center of the crowd of ghosts, the Thin Man stared at Mono with silent contempt. </p>
<p>Mono stared back. He shivered, his trembling arms barely able to hold him up. Despite the shivering, his entire body was numb, frozen, like his blood wasn’t pumping at all, even though his heart was thrumming so hard his chest visibly lifted and fell.</p>
<p>“They’re delicious.” His voice said, as the Thin Man held out his arms to gesture to the crowd. “Pick any that you like! I promise, Six, they’ll fill you up more than any food you could find. And these are just leftovers, all the little bits and pieces.” He pointed at the twirling girl. “Passions,” then the waving boy. “Hopes,” then he returned his arms to the entire crowd. “Dreams, questions, cares, everything that lets you love. Go ahead, have one!” He put his hands together. “I have no use for little lost souls anyway.” </p>
<p>Mono felt sick. He needed to warn her. “Six, that’s not me. He’s saying that, not me. Don’t trust him.” He whispered. </p>
<p>“<em>It’s a buffet! It’s a feast</em>!” His own voice shouted, as the ground began to move. </p>
<p>It pulled them away from the shore into the middle of the beach, as though they were sliding on a rug across a slick floor. Shadow children closed in behind them as they were pulled almost to the Thin Man’s feet. </p>
<p>Mono stood quickly, his heart hammering as his quaking arms held stiffly at his sides. He couldn’t run, he couldn’t move. He wasn’t stuck like he was in his Nightmare, where the world just wouldn’t allow him. He was stuck this time entirely out of fear. </p>
<p>Beside him, Six got to her feet, huffing loudly, her arms wrapped around herself as she turned her head up to the Thin Man. Mono couldn’t see her eyes. </p>
<p>He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what to say. He wanted to protect her, but he didn’t know how. He was too scared to think, too scared to act, too scared to do anything but watch, like an audience member to a train wreck.</p>
<p>Six looked out over the crowd, then looked back up to the Thin Man. </p>
<p>Don’t trust him, he yelled, he pleaded in his mind. I know you’re hungry, but please, don’t fall for his offer. He wished he could open his mouth.</p>
<p>Six straightened up, one arm still around her belly. The words came out of her mouth in tired, enraged gasps. “Why… do you think… I would ever… trust a <em>monster</em> like you?… I mean… are you stupid?” </p>
<p>Mono’s eyes widened. Now, he He wished he could scream at <em>her </em>to stop talking.</p>
<p>“You are… so stupid… An absolute airhead… a mush-brained dumbface… the least… smart guy… on the planet…” she keeled over for a second, grimacing in pain as she did so. “If you <em>think</em>… I would fall… into the most obvious trap I’ve ever seen… in my entire life!”</p>
<p>Everything after that went quiet. </p>
<p>Mono was mortified. She had pretty much just doomed them both with that speech. Insulting a Nightmare was like putting a target on your back, insulting a Nightmare to their face was suicide, plain and simple. What was she thinking? How was she so confident right now? Calling him a mush brained dumbface?? </p>
<p>Mono couldn’t stop himself. He snickered.</p>
<p>Mush-brained dumbface. The Thin Man really was, wasn’t he? He was a giant, ugly, stupid guy. He was a horrible, monstrous, evil guy. An airhead… Mono couldn’t stop himself from grinning under his mask. She actually called him an airhead. To his face. </p>
<p>He felt his arms begin to relax. Several of the shadows in the crowd were looking at each other. Mono swore he heard one of them giggle. </p>
<p>The Man straightened up. He adjusted his hat, barely tipping it to the side, before saying, “Forgive me for trying to use courtesy, rodent.” His voice wasn’t Mono’s anymore, but it was a voice he heard a lot before. A Girl’s voice, one that sang her channel 1 theme song on repeat on while she cooked and cleaned. It was an old show, but one anybody could recognize.</p>
<p>He held up his hand. “Still, you’ve made some great ideas come to mind. Mush brains, now! I wonder what would happen if I actually turned your brain to the consistency of polluted sludge, you disgusting varmint.”</p>
<p>Six’s comment had opened a door in Mono’s body. Suddenly, he remembered how to move again, even though his limbs still shivered violently.</p>
<p> He stepped between the Thin Man and Six, putting one arm out to block her even more. She didn’t have his power, she couldn’t fight back. She was weak here, but Mono could protect her. He knew he had a little power. He had enough. </p>
<p>He latched onto a faint signal. It might have been another tower, far away. It might have been the static of the falling snow. It might have been the foundation of the City itself. Wherever it came from, he forced the Thin Man to drop his hand. </p>
<p>He would never hurt Six again. </p>
<p>“Finally!” The Man said, his voice changed once again. A loud sports announcer applauded him, his voice buzzing. “Here we were, thinking you lost your way, boy.” </p>
<p>“I’ll kill you again.” Mono said. His voice didn’t even tremble. “I will. Let us go.” </p>
<p>“Now, would you look at that!” A crowd cheered in the background of the announcer’s voice. “Heard it from him, folks! He’ll do it again! Tell me, vermin.” The Thin Man leaned down to Mono’s level. “What’s your plan on killing me, if you had such an earlier vendetta against absorbing my ‘Shadow’, as you call it?” </p>
<p>Mono bit the inside of his lip. “I’ll… I’ll turn you inside out. I’ll throw you in the lake.” He glanced up, then pointed. “I’ll drop that tower on your head. Let us go, or I promise, I will kill you.” </p>
<p>“All creative.” The Man said, standing straight again. “Then again…” his voice went cute, all of a sudden. Like a whiny little child begging their parents for cereal in a annoying commercial. His head fell to the side, like he was inspecting Mono as a curious object. “Just practice. Elementary. There are such better ways to play with your food. Have you considered twisting my limbs so painfully I can barely move, then giving me some childish comfort, a toy music box, perhaps, that only twists me more as I use it, until I’m in so much pain the only thing I care about is that toy? It would be the most ironic revenge.” </p>
<p>Mono clenched his fist around the Signal. “You…” he let his words fall away. Memories of the tower came flooding back, no matter how much he told himself he wouldn’t think about it. Six’s screams, agonizing and animalistic. She wasn’t asleep, she was aware. She felt everything, she knew everything that was going on. She knew all the pain she was in. Just like all the shadows around them right now, her hopes had been ripped from her, cast out, and now wandered the world without any body to inhabit. </p>
<p>Mono couldn’t begin to comprehend that much pain. It only filled him with more rage as he stared at the monster before him, The Man that did this to her. </p>
<p>The Man’s head turned and fell to the other shoulder, where it stayed as he continued, “Use your hatred. Use your protectiveness.” He was the Cooking-song-lady again. “You don’t want to lose her, do you? So don’t let her leave. You can do that, you can trap her with you forever.” </p>
<p>Mono was about to reply, when he heard a low growl. He looked back at her.</p>
<p> She was barely standing, but he could see her eyes. They were narrow, they were closed off. They were like an animal, a soulless monster, ready to do anything to survive. Because that’s all she cared about now, filling the emptiness her shadow left, and surviving to the next day.</p>
<p>She lunged at him, and he moved his arm around, redirecting the Signal and freezing her in mid air. She was paused, her teeth gnashing and her hands curled like claws, about a foot off the snowy sand under them. The crowd of shadow children stared in awe. Or maybe they didn’t. They didn’t have eyes. </p>
<p>“Yes, you should keep her. Give her a nice kennel, one with a memory foam mat and one of those cute little hamster wheels.” The Thin Man told him, this time back in Mono’s voice. “It’s all the stimulation her tiny brain may ever need.” </p>
<p>Mono huffed and turned back to the Man, who lazily smiled at him now. “She’ll never be the same person she was before, you know. After everything I did? I doubt she’d be able to live with herself, much less with you.” </p>
<p>Mono hated that it was his voice that was telling him this. His fear had drained away, and a white-hot rage began pumped through his bloodstream. </p>
<p>The Thin Man grinned. His teeth were as gray as the rest of him, and just as crooked. “You can’t escape your fate, so you my as well accept it now. The city is yours! The Tower may have needed a soul to run, but the City will need a new tower so it won’t crumble! Everything, all the buildings, all the streets, every channel anyone could watch, it’s all your domain!”</p>
<p>Mono glared at the Thin Man under his mask.</p>
<p> Fate. He would be the next Thin Man. That was out of his power. He would have to be evil, wouldn’t he?</p>
<p>Wouldn’t he?</p>
<p>No. He shivered again. He didn’t have to be evil. He’d be the Thin Man, but he didn’t have to be evil.</p>
<p>Evil was a choice.  </p>
<p>
  <em>Or is it?</em>
</p>
<p>It is. He responded quickly, without a second thought. It most certainly is. He didn’t need a city, or a tower, or a bunch of Channels to watch. He didn’t need any of it. It was a choice he could make, but his mind was made up. He was not Evil.</p>
<p>Prove it, then. The voice that was His said. Put the girl down.</p>
<p>Mono looked at Six, still in attack position. He was keeping her there, trapped against her will. If he didn’t have to be evil, he would let her free, right?</p>
<p>No, that was dumb. If he let her free, she’d attack him. What he needed was to find her some food. </p>
<p>The Thin Man sighed loudly. “Really.” The announcer voice said, very ticked off this time. “You can’t just make this easy, can you?”</p>
<p>Every Shadow child slowly turned their head to Mono, like puppets. </p>
<p>He glanced around quickly, his nerves tightening. The Thin Man raised his arms. “I’ll just have to teach you the hard way, I suppose. It’s the message that counts, even if the lesson is harsh.”</p>
<p>All the Shadows began crowding in on Mono. They stepped closer, easing in. A few reached out to him, and he began to absorb them before quickly pulling away. </p>
<p>“Watch out, they bite.” The Thin Man said. “Most of them really want their bodies back. Or a body, anyway. Yours will do, in their minds. Or, you can absorb all their Signals and use their power to kill me as you have so described. The choice is yours.” </p>
<p>Mon glanced around, trying to look for an escape in the oncoming crowd.</p>
<p> He lost his concentration in his search, his grip on the Signal falling away. Six fell to the sand, her stomach grumbling loudly as she bent around herself. She stared up, and snarled at him. </p>
<p>He felt all alone. His world was crumbling, just like the foundations of the city. Surrounded by the things he feared most; death, The Thin Man, and his best friend readying to hurt him. He achieved nothing at all. </p>
<p>He exhaled shakily, and sealed his eyes closed, trying to grab at a Signal, to do something, to survive.</p>
<p>Something caught his ear, and he opened his eyes, staring at the lake.</p>
<p>The advancing crowd halted, all turning towards the sound. Six’s stomach rumbled, but she straightened, the noise catching her attention. The Thin Man inhaled sharply through his nose. </p>
<p>Everyone stared at Six’s shadow, standing at the edge of a long dock over the waves, holding the music box high over her head. It’s sad song flowed through the crowd.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks a bunch for reading, hope you enjoyed! The end is coming up here in a couple of chapters (I'm not specifying how many, but I promise it's more than one). Do please leave a comment and some Kudos! Have a great day!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Sad Piano Music</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Six shot after her shadow, the open raincoat barely clinging to her body as she pushed Mono aside and barreled across the snowy bank, kicking sand into his face as she did so.</p>
<p>Mono blinked a few times to get the sand out, but before he could see through the blurriness, the shaking began again.</p>
<p>Through his watery eyes, crowds of glitching shadows scrambled left and right, dashing this way and that, before being pulled back and glitching to where they were again, and shooting off in another direction. He blinked a few tears away and watched as the shadow children danced and ran and waved in a sea of panic. </p>
<p>Utterly confused, he glanced back at the shadow of the Thin Man, but only for a second before running out into the crowd too, realizing this might be the only chance he had at getting away, and he sped across the sand, occasionally falling on one of the shadows and accidentally absorbing them, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. He needed to run. </p>
<p>However, each shadow he absorbed made him feel a little loopier, Signals surging through his system, buzzing and powerful. He was giddy but, thoroughly ignoring the shock and adrenaline suddenly pumping through his body, he only focused on his fear.</p>
<p>Behind him, the Thin Man was breaking. The glitched remains fell in and out of each other, one limb reaching up to his head, the other held out towards where Six’s Shadow was. He lost focus, he lost concentration, he lost his grip.</p>
<p>He lost the Signal he was wielding over the crowd. </p>
<p>Now that they were free, instincts took over for all that remained of hundreds of children. As Mono shot between them, running after where he last saw Six, an inhuman cry, like a thousand voices and songs and televisions all turned on at once, screamed, “<em>VERMIN!</em>” </p>
<p>Mono immediately began to run faster, too loopy and terrified to register the insult, or the fact it wasn’t directed at him. Or Six. </p>
<p>The Thin Man screamed that at the Shadow. </p>
<p>Finally, after accidentally absorbing seven or eight shadows, Mono broke through the crowd of glitches, and came to a rocking halt at the foot of the dock where six and her Shadow were suppose to be. </p>
<p>He looked back into the crowd, straining to see a flash or yellow or blue from the music box. </p>
<p>Then he felt something hard crash into his side. He barely stopped himself from falling over as he swung around to face it, and noticed the blue music box on it’s side at his feet. Little Shadow arms wrapped around it and hefted it up. He watched as Shadow Six pointed her head down the dock.</p>
<p>Mono looked over his shoulder, and spotted an awful, just awful raft that was tied with a fishing line to the post. Two couch cushions, nailed together with a plank of driftwood, soggy and moldy and undoubtedly horrible smelling. He was amazed it was even floating in water this shallow, despite the violent rippling caused by the ongoing quake. He had standards! Or did he?</p>
<p>He giggled at himself. </p>
<p>The Shadow, nodded at it again. It wanted him to get on. </p>
<p>Mono shook his head. Another of the Thin Man’s Tricks, no doubt! An illusion of some kind. He’d step on the raft and it wouldn’t actually be there and he’d fall into the water and… uh, the Thin Man would do something bad. The water was a trap! Maybe. He wouldn’t fall for it again, and only stood his ground in front of the shadow.  </p>
<p>Six’s shadow slumped in exasperation. Then, in a blaze, a bright yellow figure knocked into her and pushed her into the sand. Mono stepped back, watching with wide eyes as Six scratched and bit, trying to wrestle the music box out of the vise-like grip of her shadow. </p>
<p>Her shadow twisted around in the sand, trying to shield the music box away from her. Six snarled and grabbed at her, biting the shadows arm. It dissipated and remade itself, still hugging the Music Box, as the Shadow got to her feet and ran parallel to the shore, Six chasing after her. </p>
<p>Mono shook his head in disbelief. He must’ve been in some terrible shock, so his brain only fixated on the fact that he “should’ve gotten that music box sooner, because clearly she actually wanted it” rather than fixating on, say, running for his life. The instinct kicked in after a moment, however, and he took off after her. </p>
<p>The crowd of freed shadow kids was spreading out across the beach, by Mono kept his eyes locked on that bright yellow coat. It was challenging to run with the ground bouncing up and down powerfully under him, but he managed. </p>
<p>Ahead of him, Six lunged again, so he ran faster to catch up. Breathlessly, he leaned on his knees as he watched Six and her Shadow roll and wrestle in the snow. </p>
<p>The Shadow held the Music Box over her head for a moment, and Six scratched up her arms to try and grab it. She finally tossed it away, reeled her fist back, and punched Six in the nose.</p>
<p>Six fell backwards. Sitting with both her hands pressed to her face, she sobbed into her palms, the painful sound muffled to the point of only being a “Hrrmmmm!!!” </p>
<p>The music box rolled to Mono’s feet, and he stared down at it. A handful of sand was then throw at it, and he looked back up at Six’s Shadow. She gestured between herself and then Six wildly, and Mono wondered briefly why she couldn’t talk. </p>
<p>The ground ceased in it’s shaking, and Shadow Six froze, staring at something behind him. Mono felt himself be tugged upwards, the freezing sand falling away from his feet. Around him, the world buzzed with static and flying Signals. </p>
<p>He became very suddenly sober, as the direness of the situation plagued his mind. </p>
<p>Focus, Focus, Focus. He pounded it into his skull, but there was nothing he could do now. The Thin Man lifted him up, along with Six and her Shadow, a few feet off the ground. He was stuck, frozen in the air.</p>
<p>Mono gulped. Without the tower, their fates were now completely up to imagination, where they might go, what might happen to them. He didn’t want to imagine it. </p>
<p>The entire world froze, in that moment. The earthquake halted, the Shadow children silenced, the flakes of snow stuck perpetually falling to the ground. </p>
<p>He shook his head. He wouldn’t imagine it. He wouldn’t imagine the twisted limbs, the horrible screams, the lank bodies, the pain. Everything he loved and cared about being literally ripped from him and tossed aside like trash. Six…</p>
<p>A spark of rage ignited inside him. Six. </p>
<p>She had been through enough, he thought. He <em>knew</em>. She deserved to be happy. </p>
<p>Even though she was unfair, mean, spiteful… Mono felt the flames of rage begin to suffocate, shrinking away, shrouding themselves. She teased him, made him feel stupid too, made him angry and sad and afraid of being alone again. </p>
<p>His eyes narrowed. His friend made him feel that way. She deserved to be happy. </p>
<p><em>He</em> deserved to be happy too. The rage erupted, a volcano of boiling iron inside him. </p>
<p>Did she think she could do that? </p>
<p>Bully him like that? </p>
<p>After he had done so much to be good to her, so much to be her friend? He deserved to be happy too. He deserved to be without worry! For so long, and he had nothing to tell her different with, because the stupid voice in his stupid head… </p>
<p>No. He wasn’t stupid.  </p>
<p> The Thin Man’s voice was inside his head, egging him on to call himself stupid. The Thin Man was wrong—He wasn’t stupid, he told himself. He wasn’t an idiot, because if he was, the Thin Man would be right. </p>
<p>Mono clenched his fist. He would never be right. Never. Someone as cruel, as evil as Him, wasn’t <em>allowed</em> to be right about anything. </p>
<p>Mono wasn’t stupid. Any demeaning voice, in his head or from Six or from anywhere else, was as wrong as the Thin Man. He wasn’t an idiot. In fact, as the Signals around him began swarming, and he turned himself around to face the Thin Man in the frenzy, he was powerful. Very powerful.</p>
<p>He didn’t feel empty in this rage. He felt like the ground would quiver where he walked. He felt like the street lamps would bow in his presence. He felt like the lake was lapping at the shore in time with his heart, and the tears streaming down his cheeks were a fiery gasoline that set aflame anything they touched. He didn’t need to latch onto the Signals, they flowed towards him and orbited him like asteroids, caught in his well of power. </p>
<p>The Thin Man grinned (it was hard to tell as, like before, his teeth and face were all the same color). Here was Mono, using the powers as He intended. </p>
<p>Mono stared back, his feet hitting the ground once again. He questioned which action he should take next.</p>
<p>The music was almost silent in his ears, but then, it was the loudest thing he ever heard. A few little dings, a bell being struck as the axles and cogs turned around and around in a tiny blue box. It reminded him of purple, and screams, and running. It was irritating. </p>
<p>He turned to where it came from, ready to kill whatever machine uttered such a painful noise. It rang in his ears, horrible and achy. He concentrated all the Signals towards Six, who was playing the Music Box with one arm, the other still pressed to her nose. Her Shadow was pointing towards the shore, frozen where she stood. </p>
<p>Mono breathed, for the first time in a few minutes. </p>
<p>The snow began falling again. </p>
<p>The need to get himself and Six to safety returned to his mind, but it didn’t look like it had returned to hers, as she spun the music box around and around. </p>
<p>He looked back at the Thin Man and, using what few Signals he had left, he pushed him away, the sand under his glitching shoes like a bedsheet on a wooden floor. </p>
<p>Shadow Six took off towards the raft, and Mono grabbed Six’s elbow, tugging her along the bank to the dock again. </p>
<p>They ran down the splintery wood, and the Shadow gestured for them both to hop on. Mono gently pushed Six onto the floating couch cushions, where she sat with her toy in her lap, and hopped down himself. </p>
<p>The Shadow quickly untied the rope docking them. Mono felt their tiny little ship begin to drift out, and he waved at the Shadow to jump over. </p>
<p>Shadow Six backed away from the edge, then took a running leap, then froze, poised over the water, trapped in a lunge.  </p>
<p>The buzzing glitches around her swarmed backwards, towards the beach. Mono leapt to his feet and held out his hand to reach for her. He quickly remembered, once he began to absorb her form, he couldn’t touch her. </p>
<p>The Thin Man stood on the edge of the dock, hand held up, pulling Six’s Shadow towards him. </p>
<p>“No!” Mono yelled, reaching out to try and bring her back, but there was nothing. All the Signals from before had fled, and he had nothing to grab with. </p>
<p>The Thin Man didn’t even glance at him, instead staring deadly at Six’s Shadow. She shook her head a few times at him, as though silently screaming <em>No, No NO. Not again. Please, not again!</em></p>
<p>Mono’s hand went limp as they were pulled farther into the current. Mist began to gather along the top of the water, obscuring his vision, and obscuring his mind. </p>
<p>He couldn’t even see their outlines after only a few moments, and he plopped down on the cushion, dread engulfing him, and the ding-dong music from Six wasn’t helping in the slightest, only worsening his feelings as the shore vanished entirely, replaced with mist and snow. </p>
<p>They sat in the quiet except for the music and the rippling water. The tide never took you exactly where you wanted to go, but at least, they could trust it to at least take them somewhere. </p>
<p>Mono stood again, staring at where the city was. “We need to go back for her.”</p>
<p>Only music replied. He turned to Six and repeated, “We <em>need</em> to go back for her.” </p>
<p>She didn’t even look up, only turning her music box around and around. </p>
<p>“Aren’t you still hungry?” Mono asked. </p>
<p>She shook her head. “A little. But I like the music.” </p>
<p>Mono’s eyes narrowed. “Music isn’t food.” </p>
<p>“It makes me happy.”  She growled at him. “Don’t touch it again.”</p>
<p>Again. He clenched his fist, and began searching around for a spoon, or a stick, or something. “Do you see something we can paddle back with?” </p>
<p>Six glared up at him. Her gaze still hurt, but not nearly as much as it used to. He could stand up to it now. “We’re not going back.” She said.</p>
<p>Mono glared at her. He felt like he knew she was going to say that. “We have to.” He argued.</p>
<p>“Pft.” She said, spinning the handle of her music box around and around. “We don’t have to do anything. Going back is literally just suicide. She got caught cause she wasn’t fast enough. Not our fault.”</p>
<p>Mono hated that a part of him agreed with her. He knew how to ignore that part, now. “She’s you, Six. Or a part of you, the missing part.” </p>
<p>Six shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything anymore.” Her hand went around and around on the music box, the small song filling the air. “I’ll probably get hungry again soon, but ya know, I’m… happy. With this.” </p>
<p>Mono’s eyes softened. She was happy. He shook away the feeling. “What if the Music Box breaks?”</p>
<p>“It’ll only break if you touch it.” She said, shooting him an firey glare. “I’d take care of it.”</p>
<p>“Six.” Mono put his hands up, as though that would help his case. “You’re missing yourself! You can’t fill that with music and food forever!”</p>
<p>Six rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, I know Mono, I’m not stupid!” she yelled, pulling the toy closer. </p>
<p>“Then lets go back!” he said,pointing back at the city. “Let’s get that missing part back!”</p>
<p>Six groaned. “You don’t get it! I don’t need that part of me, Mono.” One hand lifted from the box and she pressed it to her chest. The other hugged it close. “I’m fine. Sure, I’ll get hungry now and then, but we’ll find food. And other toys to play with.” She looked down at the box. “And pretty dresses, maybe. I always wanted pretty dresses. And soft beds, really soft beds, the ones made out of feathers. And a house, a big house, like a mansion. If I’m ever hungry, I’ll just take whatever I want. It’ll keep me full.”</p>
<p>Mono leaned back from her, a frigid chill running down his spine. “You’re sounding like a Monster.” He said. </p>
<p>“What?!” Six’s gaze flew up, angry and piercing. “I do not! I’m just dreaming, Mono! Am I not allowed to wish life was better?!”</p>
<p>“By taking?” he said. “By taking whatever you want? By doing whatever you want? What if you want to hurt somebody, huh?”</p>
<p>Six’s shoulders flew up. “Then I’d hurt them!”</p>
<p>“Exactly!” Mono cried. “You shouldn’t do that! You shouldn’t be willing to do that!”</p>
<p>“Well, it’s better them than me!” she yelled. “I’d rather be happy than anybody else! I actually matter!”</p>
<p>“And I don’t?!” Mono shouted. He was silently glad there wasn’t any Signal to grab out here. </p>
<p>She stared at him, her gaze tightening. “No. You don’t.”</p>
<p>Mono froze. Her words cut him. </p>
<p>“You don’t matter at all, in fact.” She smiled now. The smile that mocked, that kicked puppies, that thought it was okay to hurt people. “Mono, do you have any idea why I didn’t just drop you in the tower?”</p>
<p>Mono inhaled, but remained silent.</p>
<p>Six continued. “When I caught you, I honestly thought I’d just let you go. I hated you in that moment, I wanted to watch your face as you fell. I wanted nothing more than to see that expression when you saw I didn’t care about you. The only reason I didn’t?” Her smile widened, as though she knew how much hearing this hurt him. “The only reason I didn’t drop you right then, was because I didn’t know if I’d be able to travel through the TV like you could. I didn’t know if I’d make it through, because I don’t have your powers. You’re nothing but a tool to me. A shovel or a piece of rope would work even better, because at least the shovel wouldn’t argue with me about doing things!” she laughed at him. “That’s all you are. That’s the only reason I’m still even with you. You’re useful. I don’t actually care about you.” She leaned forward, over her music box, and grinned up at him. “I never really did.” </p>
<p>Mono stared. Her words hurt, like a knife. He felt like they were true, too. The only times she called to him, the only time she stayed, was when she needed something. A broken window. Fixed gravity. Protection. Food. Every time she gave him hope, she told him she was leaving again. It was like a game to her, dangling her happiness in front of him like a string in front of a cat, making him feel like she cared about him, only to yank it out of the way each time. </p>
<p>The snow landed on her bangs, and it stayed there, like little tufts of cotton. </p>
<p>She was wrong. He knew, he knew, he <em>knew</em> she was. Because this wasn’t her.</p>
<p>When they were first walking through the hunter’s woods, and he pulled the bridge up, she jumped to the other side quickly and stared up at the horizon. He worried at the time she would leave him, she would run off, leaving him stranded on the other side of the chasm. That’s why he called out to her, for help. To not be alone. </p>
<p>“Hey!” he yelled, in his memory. </p>
<p>She stared at the horizon for only a moment longer, before turning to him, her eyes wide. </p>
<p>At first, he was scared there was someone behind him, and he glanced back. It was nothing. She was seeing something very far away, not anything he had to worry about. </p>
<p>“Psst!” she replied. He turned back, and there she was, holding her hand out from the edge of the bridge. </p>
<p>He blinked at her, this strange girl he just met. Second thoughts flooded his mind, at the time. No way she would catch him, it was a trap. It had to be. </p>
<p>She gestured for him to leap. </p>
<p>His heart pounded in his chest, and he held his breath as he ran forward, grabbing her arm.</p>
<p>The air tickled the bottoms of his feet, and she immediately heaved him up, onto land. They both sat there, staring down at the pit below them. </p>
<p>“Thank you.” He whispered, barely a breath.<em> For not leaving,</em> he meant, but didn’t know how to say.</p>
<p>She stared through him, eyes wide. </p>
<p>She smiled. It was small, it was timid, and it was barely noticeable. He knew, in that instant, that smile meant the entire world and everything in it. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. In that second, they were friends. In that split moment that smile vanished, turning back to the quiet, always observant face he knew so well, he would do anything he could to make her smile like that again.</p>
<p>He looked through the mist now, through two tiny holes cut in a paper bag. He could see the woods, the dark skeletons of trees standing guard. Most of what he could see was darkness, the underside of a paper bag. He wanted to see more.</p>
<p>He grabbed his mask and pulled it off his head, dropping it in the water, and stared at Six on the ground in front of him. She stared back, her eyebrows shooting up, prompting him.</p>
<p> He should be angry. He should be a lot of things. </p>
<p>Instead, he gave her a small, kind smile. A smile that he knew she had never seen before, because his mask always covered it. A smile he knew would only confuse her.</p>
<p>“Why are you smiling?” she asked, her eyes narrowing even more. “I told you, you’re useless to me now.” </p>
<p>He just kept smiling. He turned, staring back at where the city was, through the mist and snow. </p>
<p>“Oh, I get it.” Six snickered. “You think you’re so clever? You’re an idiot. I know exactly what you’re doing.” </p>
<p>He glanced back at her, still smiling. It was a sad smile, but he couldn’t stop at this point. It made him so sad, that she couldn’t be happy.</p>
<p>He smiled because he was going to fix it. He knew he was going to fix it.  </p>
<p>She leered back. “I can do that too! See?” </p>
<p>He turned from her again, and sat, facing where the city was. </p>
<p>“Whatever.” Six snarled, and the music started up again. </p>
<p>After a minute, he felt the bump of the raft docking, and heard Six’s footsteps across the sand, walking away from him. He stepped off too, and quickly pushed the makeshift raft back into the water, jumping on. </p>
<p>“Hey!” Six called. “What, you’re not even gonna try to convince me not to leave again? Come on, idiot!”</p>
<p>He looked back, and waved. “I’ll be back soon! See ya!” he called, smiling again.</p>
<p>“Good luck finding me! I’ll be long gone by then!” she responded, still holding the Music Box. </p>
<p>He turned back to the water. He wasn’t too worried. He was pretty sure finding her again wouldn’t be that hard. </p>
<p>It hadn’t occurred to him until right then, but she was probably talking a lot more because hurting him filled her. He shrugged to himself. If he wasn’t around to bully, maybe she’d go quiet again. He hoped she’d be happier.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I had so many ideas for this chapter bouncing around in my head, it was hard to only pick some. The amount of notes for how I wanted this to go down is... actually probably unhealthy. BUT, I love how it turned out. Comments are always a wonderful treat, so please leave one! Beyond that, have a great night all y'alls.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Found it</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The waves rolled under him like stones. He felt… confident, yet, every second he came closer to the city, a little more fear seeped into his system. He may know what he’s doing, but that didn’t make the idea of facing the Thin Man again any less scary. He tried to ignore those thoughts, instead focusing on the ones telling him he was going to save his friend, or at least, a piece of her.</p><p>Then the thoughts came back, and told him how stupid it was that he was coming back to a place he knew was dangerous. He ignored them again, and sat in quiet on the raft, gazing through the empty mist. </p><p>The city came into view with a sandbar covered in snow. It was coming down in sheets now, and he wished he had shoes, but knew that was never going to happen. A smoky silence covered the beach as the raft stuck on the sand. He couldn’t see anything through the fog and blizzard, not even the looming towers. If he could’ve seen through the fog, he would’ve been amazed to find the towers were gone. Most of the city, in fact, had collapsed into the dust and snow that now flitted in the air around him. Without the tower, there were no foundations, and almost the entire city had succumbed to the quakes.</p><p>He coughed quietly, and stepped off the raft onto the frozen bank, flakes of snow landing on his coat arms, but not melting. He wrapped the fabric around him and pressed forward into the mist. </p><p>Each step froze the bottoms of his feet until they stung. He glanced around, trying to find his way, trying to find anything. Even the raft had vanished into the fog. </p><p>Mono squeezed his eyes shut. He will find a way through this, he told himself.</p><p>He reached out with one hand, feeling through the air for a specific Signal, one he barely had a taste… not taste. Feeling. One he barely had a feeling of earlier.</p><p>It brushed against his hand like a ghost, and he snatched at it. He felt it whimpering in fear, or pain. He felt it singing. </p><p>Gently, the Signal played the song on loop, the same comforting song he heard a hundred times before, that made him sad, happy, and peaceful. </p><p>“Six!” he yelled, following the signal like a frayed sewing thread through the mist. </p><p>The singing grew louder as he pressed through, bending his head against the snowy wind and blinking the dust from his eyes. “Six!” he called again. </p><p>At first, all he saw was a shadowy blob. Then, it started taking shape. </p><p>Mono’s breath caught in his throat. Every nerve in his body was ringing the alarm bells, screeching, “Trap! Trap! Trap!” he proceeded slowly, watching his feet with every step and keeping his eye on Six’s Shadow between every step.</p><p>The ground declined gradually, a weak downward slope. He carefully slid one foot in front of the other, checking for anything that could be dangerous. </p><p>The sand came to an end. The cliff dropped into a hazy oblivion, the kind so deep, you would die of starvation before you hit the bottom. The same kind that ripped through the city in long chasms. </p><p>He looked up from the edge towards Six’s Shadow, who glitched back and forth, dangling over the emptiness. Her body was stiff, bound by an invisible rope that Mono could feel, but didn’t have any idea how to untangle. He held her Signal tightly. </p><p>“Six.” He called, waving. </p><p>Her head went to the side at him. He assumed that meant she heard. </p><p>He started to gently tug her Signal back onto solid ground, but felt it go taut and snap. He knew it was week, and he quickly tried to grab at the other end, but it was no use. It vanished into the sea of other Signals. </p><p>“This isn’t my fate, you know.” Six’s voice told him. </p><p>Panic peaked in his heart, and Mono twisted around. He couldn’t see the Thin Man anywhere, but his words echoed in Mono’s ears as though he were right beside him. </p><p>“This was supposed to be you. You were gonna rule this city next. Not me. I don’t even have a body, how am I supposed to rule over anything at all?” the Shadow Voice said. It contrasted pretty heavily with the Shadow’s body language, as she crossed her arms and shook her head and stuck her hands on her ears as he spoke. </p><p>Mono didn’t say anything, and instead continued to search through the mist for the dark remains of his worst Nightmare. </p><p>“You can fix this pretty easily, you know.” The voice said. </p><p>Mono ignored it.</p><p>“Just switch places with me! I’ll go rejoin my body, and you’ll be at peace.” She called.</p><p>Mono ignored it. </p><p>“Take my place. Be the next. Let me die.” He cried. </p><p>Mono ignored it. </p><p>“You’ll become me anyway. Why not speed up the process? Why do you fight it so stubbornly?” It said.</p><p>Mono gazed over the cliff. He wouldn’t be able to find the Thin Man by looking, he knew it.  </p><p>“If you don’t do this now, I’ll just kill her. Cliffs are quick and efficient, almost painless, unless you think about the days of falling, slowly going hungrier and hungrier.” He said. </p><p>Mono tried to ignore it. It was harder to ignore that one. He reached forward again, but didn’t try to grab The shadow’s Signal. Instead, he reached for the dark gray, snake-like tail of the Thin Man’s. </p><p>“Well, say something, you worthless brat. Won’t you try to bargain on your friend’s life?” </p><p>Parts of Six’s Shadow were unstiffening. A hand freed, and stretched to him. She would fall soon if the signal loosened any more. </p><p>An idea came to Mono’s head, and he continued to look for the Thin Man, but as he did so, he gently grabbed the Shadow’s Signal. If the Thin Man felt any pull, he didn’t mention it as he continued. </p><p>“I don’t know what it would take to convince you. I suppose if you actually don’t care about your friend’s life, then I’ll-”</p><p>Mono yanked on the Signal as the Thin Man spoke, interrupting his words. Six’s shadow broke free and shot towards the cliff, hand still outstretched.</p><p>Mono reached as well, running to the edge of the cliff and almost grabbing for it, when he remembered. He shouldn’t touch.</p><p>The shadow clasped onto the ledge of the cliff and pulled herself up quickly, Mono helping as much as he could, tugging on her Signal from afar.</p><p>He felt the Thin Man’s signal slither across the back of his neck. Eyes widening in horror, the Signal Went taunt. He pressed his heels into the ground as it began to pull him towards the edge. Sand, snow and ash all made tiny mountains under his feet as the signal dragged him forward. </p><p>He reached back, feeling for a strong Signal, some kind of anchor. Something to grab onto.</p><p>Six’s Shadow searched around behind him, finally picking up a long piece of drift wood and sticking it out to him. He nabbed it, hugging it to his chest, as Six began to pull him back from the edge. </p><p>“LET GO.” A million voices screamed at once. </p><p>Mono watched Six’s shadow. She was fighting a strong wind, head bowed, each step making a pothole in the sand as she pulled forward. He grabbed onto her signal, but didn’t pull. He pushed, pushed her forward, pushed her away from the grip of the Thin Man.</p><p>“NO.” The voices shouted, as the ground began to shake. “NO NO NO. I WILL NOT LOSE TO A CHILD.” </p><p>The pull was getting stronger, and he held the piece of wood as tight as possible, but could feel his hands slipping. He turned from Six, and looked back at the cliff. A gray hand, fingers long as snakes, grabbed onto the edge of the Cliff. </p><p>Mono’s eyes narrowed. </p><p>He let go of Six and snagged the Thin Man’s Signal around his hand, tightening his grip. They began to be pulled backwards, so Mono had to act fast. </p><p>He wondered if he should say something. Something cool like, “I’m not afraid.” Or “I’ll never be like you.” However, he couldn’t. Both of those statements were lies. He was terrified, and he knew when he grew up he’d be almost exactly like him, a monster.</p><p>Instead, he took a deep breath, and with all his tiny might, he pushed the Thin Man’s Signal away.</p><p>The hand blew off the cliff, and a million buzzing, broken voices screamed in echoing rage as Mono felt the Signal around his body grow weaker and weaker. The screaming became more and more quiet as the voices fell down the cliff like stones, broken, distorted, and finally buried. </p><p>Then, his feet planted on the ground, the screams became nothing but a whistle in the wind. Hollow and frigid. </p><p>He turned to Six’s Shadow, who as also staring at where the Thin Man just fell. </p><p>Mono needed to say something. “I’m sorry.” He said. “For leaving you.”</p><p>The Shadow’s head turned to him. It gave a silent shrug, like it was saying no big deal.</p><p>She wasn’t angry, or snarky in any way. Her reaction was perfectly genuine. Mono felt as though a brick wall that had been leaning on him for days fell the other way. He smiled, letting the relief flow over him like a river.</p><p>He shivered.</p><p>Finding the raft through the mist proved to be difficult, but after a while they came to the shore and walked along it until the cheap, two-cushion raft came into view. They walked without saying a word, because between them, no words felt like they needed to be said. </p><p>Mono had no idea how he would put Six back together. He didn’t really understand how she broke up, either, but he knew he would figure it out as he pushed the raft into the water, Shadow Six sitting on the edge, staring forward. </p><p>Mono sat down, and looked at her. “Do you know how to put yourself together again?”</p><p>Her head turned to him, but she couldn’t speak.</p><p>Mono shrugged. “Knock once for yes, twice for no.”</p><p>The Shadow continued to stare. She lifted her fist and pounded on the soft cushion of the raft one time. The water lapped at the sides loudly. </p><p>Mono nodded. “What do I have to do?”</p><p>She held out her arms, miming actions like reaching for her chest and pointing between them.</p><p>Mono exhaled. “That’s not gonna work. Um, do I have to touch you? Once yes twice no.” </p><p>The shadow looked out over the fog in thought, then turned back to him and slapped the cushion twice.</p><p>“Do I have to touch her?” he asked.</p><p>One slap.</p><p>“Do you need to… walk into her? Ghost-style?” </p><p>Two slaps.</p><p>Mono sighed, rubbing his face. His cheeks were numb from the cold. </p><p>“Do I have to use your Signal for something?”</p><p>One slap. He was getting there. </p><p>“Do I need to… push you into her?”</p><p>The shadow slapped twice, then showed him her hands. She wiggled her left one, then her right. They clasped together, folded with fingers weaved between each other. </p><p>Mono stared, Perplexed. “I need to… combine…”</p><p>The Shadow nodded, moving her hand around and prompting him to keep going. </p><p>“Combine your Signals back together?” he asked.</p><p>The shadow jumped to her feet, rocking the entire raft with her, and clapped her hands over her head as she kicked her feet in a small dance. Mono hoped that meant he was right, and he grinned at her.</p><p>“So, why did you grab the music box, all the while ago?” he asked her, sitting back down.</p><p>The shadow tilted her head to the side, sitting down and smacking the cushions a few times.</p><p>“Right, right. Um… did you grab it because it’s a bad thing?”</p><p> She smacked twice. </p><p>“Because It would hurt Six or Me?”</p><p>Two slaps.</p><p>“Because You wanted to protect us?”</p><p>Two.</p><p>He nodded. “Did you grab it… because you knew it would fix Six’s hunger?”</p><p>The Shadow hesitated, then smacked the cushion twice. </p><p>“Because… you wanted it?”</p><p>Two slaps. </p><p>Mono huffed. “Because you just wanted to screw with the Thin Man?”</p><p>One slap, and she looked up at him slowly. <em>Of course</em>, he grumbled to himself. </p><p>“How did you know that would work? Or uh, I mean…” how was he supposed to phrase that? “Did you know it would cause Six to freak out and the Shadows to all start running?”</p><p>One smack. Yes.</p><p>“And that works because the music box is powerful?”</p><p>Two smacks. No.</p><p>“It works because… the music box has some of the Thin Man’s power in it?”</p><p>Two smacks. This was getting frustrating. </p><p>“Because the Thin Man had to use the Music Box to keep Six calm-ish?”</p><p>One smack.</p><p>“So, hearing that song made him flip out a bit and think back to when she was a monster too?”</p><p>One smack, though it wasn’t very confident. </p><p>Mono sighed. “Okay. You knew the music box was distracting to the Thin Man, so you stole it, and planned to just use it to mess with him, until you saw us in trouble and decided to use it to make him chase you?”</p><p>The shadow nodded, then slapped the couch as hard as she could before folding her arms over her glitching chest. </p><p>Mono took a deep breath, and let it fall out of his mouth calmly. “That’s enough questions for a bit.” He said, right as he felt a bump. They hit the sandbar on the edge of the wilderness, and the mist had cleared just enough to see the densely packed trees with a loose layer of snow covering their green-black branches.</p><p>Mono stepped off the raft and gestured the Shadow to follow. “I know exactly where she is.” He told her, making his way into the woods. The shadow followed.</p><p>Mono felt nostalgic as he walked. The trees became more and more familiar the farther in they journeyed, until he could even point out the exact spots he had taken naps. He walked by the tall man dangling by a foot from a snare, his decaying body collecting flies as it swayed in the wind. </p><p>They broke through the trees into an open meadow. The hunter’s tall, rickety stand hung off a tree, metal ladder reaching down to the grass underneath. Mono couldn’t help but smile as he stared up at it, thinking back to times he would hide in trees and climb that ladder, sleeping up in the stand because it offered a little warmth and safety, but he’d always have to come down for food. </p><p>They continued through the woods, until finally, the Hunter’s Cabin appeared through the mist. The windows were dark, and the snow blew like ghosts around the dilapidated structure.</p><p>Mono stood at the base of the cabin and stared up at an open four-pane window. The Shadow stood beside him, also staring up.</p><p>Every few moments, when the wind would stop blowing and the trees would stop rustling, faint music would come from through the window, bells ringing softly from deep inside the building.</p><p>Mono began to walk around the cabin, stepping over the occasional set bear trap. They came around to the porch, which had white cotton of snow covering the rotted wooden steps. Both of them quickly climbed up through the windowsill and ran across the kitchen to the basement door. </p><p>Mono noticed four sets of tiny footprints that led through the wide doorway. He couldn’t tell which were his and which were Six’s. However, he knew she was down there, as the soothing tune drifted up the stairs and around his head.</p><p>He sighed, feeling its melancholy run through him, then wash away. </p><p>They walked down the stairs one step at a time, each one creaking as they did so. The basement floor was somehow colder than the snow outside, and it burned the bottoms of Mono’s feet as he walked across it toward the shattered door of the room he knew so well.</p><p>She sat in the middle of the rug, turning her music box slowly. To her left, Mono noticed a stockpile of food, sausages and stuff he had seen in the kitchen. She must’ve been planning to stay for a very long time. </p><p>“Hey.” He said.</p><p>She kept on playing her song, not even looking up at him. </p><p>“Six?” he said.</p><p>She played on.</p><p>The Shadow stepped in front of him. She walked over to her body, and placed her hand on top of the box, halting the lever from it’s spinning. Six’s head snapped up, and she growled at the shadow. </p><p>The shadow held firm.</p><p>“I’m going to put you back together.” Mono told her. </p><p>“No.” Six told him, still staring at her Shadow. “I don’t want her. She was evil.”</p><p>Mono tilted his head to the side. “You’re not evil.” He told her.</p><p>“She was a monster.” Six said, her gaze finally looking at him. “You don’t get it. She’s horrible. Always distracting me, trying to get me killed. Caring about things.”</p><p>Mono huffed. “You’re not a monster, Six.”</p><p>“I never said I was.” She snapped, yanking on her music box. The Shadow grabbed it with both hands.</p><p>Mono put his hand up, feeling both of their signals, intertwining in his hand.</p><p>He hesitated.</p><p>This was a trap, wasn’t it? The Thin Man was disguised as the Shadow again. If he put them together, he’d loose Six forever. This was a trap, it had to be. </p><p>“What’re you doing?” Six yelled. “Starting another earthquake? Trying to get me killed? Let me go!” </p><p>Mono grabbed both Signals. He knew exactly what he was doing. Silently, he wished with all his might, that Six would finally be healed after this. </p><p>He inhaled, and the Signals began to knot together in his palm. Twisting around, like a barbershop pole, tighter and tighter on each other.</p><p>Shadow Six buzzed, as she and Six were fazed, both their figures becoming blurry as their signals raveled together like twine. </p><p>Finally, Mono didn’t think he could tighten them anymore, and gently let go, hoping they wouldn’t unknot again. </p><p>They didn’t. The Signal stayed taunt in his hand, and Six floated in front of him, frozen in mid air. He put her on the ground, then let her go.</p><p>Her hand went to her chest immediately, and she inhaled sharply through her nose, her hood covering her face. </p><p>Mono stood back, bracing himself for the worst.</p><p>She relaxed, and lifted her head softy, looking over at him. Her wide eyes watered, dripping down her face. She sniffed, almost silently.</p><p>Immediately, Mono ran over and pulled her into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around her body and leaning his head against the top of hers. He felt tears begin to run down his face too. He just cried at the drop of a hat, didn’t he?</p><p>They stood like that, the snow hitting the high window with soft taps, the music box long silenced. The smell of basement grime filled the air, but Mono didn’t notice it when all he could smell was the greasiness of her unwashed hair and feel the stickiness of her coat. They both needed baths. </p><p>“I’m sorry, Mono.” She whispered. “I’m a monster.”</p><p>“No.” He said, rubbing the back of her head. “No. You’re not.”</p><p>After an entire minute of hugging, she pushed away and stared at him in the eyes. Or rather, stared through him, at something very far away. He couldn’t begin to understand what it might be. </p><p>“What now?” she whispered. </p><p>Mono shrugged, looking up at the snowy window, then over at Six’s stock pile. “We stay here until the snow melts, then…” he smiled through his tears, and thought of the Hunter’s Stand. “I know a little place we could live. For a bit. It’s warm, safe, and has plenty of food once we stock up.”</p><p>Six blinked at him, then nodded once. Then, she reached her hand up and ran it through his hair, saying, “I didn’t know you had black hair too.”</p><p>Mono nodded, reaching up as well, and holding her hand. He brought it down, so their clasped hands hung between them, as he stared at her wonderful, curious, tear-stricken face. </p><p>He knew they would be okay.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry for the day-late final update, folks. I have a different story in the works too, and I wanted to make the final chapter of this one as satisfying as possible. Anyway, yes, this is the end. Thank you for reading, and if you're binge-reading this in the future, then you should probably go to bed now. Really hope you had a good read, and have a great time. See ya!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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